Future First Championship News

[nfhammes]

Originally Posted by cadandcookies

FIRST is in a difficult position here. Some of it is their own making, but a large part of it is just being the victims of their own success. Volunteer infrastructure simply isn't where it needs to be in a lot of places to allow FIRST to run the program exactly how they want to (which is likely quite similar to that 2011 proposal).

And that might be it - that they'd love to do something like the 2011 / Super Regional model, but it was a huge enough growing pain for FTC, and they're not convinced they can make the same huge leap in FRC. Splitting to two CMP events also gives the FTC Super Regional model a bit of space to grow, by doubling their slots, too. Maybe in 2020, they add two or three more CMP-level events that qualify teams to a late May World Championship event, adding an extra tier for FRC, at the level of existing Super Regionals for FTC, and acting as another World Festival for FLL. If this is a growth towards that old plan, it's really not a terrible solution for a difficult problem.

Having two CMP events is also a great way to get more CMP key volunteers, especially some of the roles that have been filled by a relatively small number of people for a while. Growing that pool is a valuable sustainability measure for FIRST, whether or not they're expanding towards a Super Regional-like model. The field expansion this year works towards that same goal.