[FRC Blog] We're Listening

[Michael Corsetto]

Originally Posted by Alex2614

Maybe FIRST is suspecting further growth, and thus still having sustainability problems even with the championsplit. It's not necessarily going against what he said in the fall. Think about how much FRC has grown in the last 5-10 years. Think about how much further we will have grown in 5-10 years from now. Maybe they realized that even if they cut down on eligibility, they would still be running into capacity problems.

All of the discussions about the percentages of teams represented at the championsplit are using this year's numbers. If FIRST keeps up the exponential growth precedent of the last 20 years, this may be the case.

It may not seem like it now, but it is possible that FIRST is doing whatever they can to prepare for the future and allow some breathing room. It's possible that this solution is temporary until districts become more universal. It's possible that in 5-10 years, FIRST will be twice as big as we are now. And there may come a time when even if we only brig the winning alliances from the regionals and DCMPs we will outgrow the current model.

Also take into consideration the fact that FTC and FLL are growing much more rapidly than FRC last time I checked. So that may play into effect here too. FIRST really wants all of the programs to be represented (and I do too - I vehemently oppose splitting up FLL FTC and FRC into different champs), so remember it is not just about us.

I never said they went against their word. I proposed that:

1) Frank has not followed up on his word (to "detail the reasons for our decisions when the information is released")

2) FIRST HQ made an announcement last week that went in a different direction than the items discussed in the August 22nd, 2014 blog post.

The speculation in your post may or may not be true, but they are not a precise response to the main thought of my post. I simply aimed to highlight the discrepancy in Frank and FIRST's communication and allow discussion to come from that.

Thanks for reading and responding, I'll try to be clearer in the future.

-Mike