Preparing for the Town Hall Meeting on the New Championships Format

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by Shifter

Not ideal, but a possible temporary solution until everyone has migrated to Districts...

World Championship: crowns undisputed FRC World Champion (which is important, especially to robot-centric FRC teams)

invitees*:

• Chairman's winners with robots ranked in the top 40% at their last event are invited (but have the option to choose to attend the World Festival instead) - approx 50 teams
• captain and first pick from each Regional winning alliance - approx 160 teams
• top 60% of teams qualifying through District Championships - approx 100 teams
• Engineering Inspiration winners (with robots ranked in the top 40% at their last event) - approx 60 teams
• Rookie All Stars (with robots ranked in the top 40% at their last event) - approx 30 teams

World Festival: crowns undisputed Chairman's Award Winner (which is important to all FRC teams)

invitees*:

• Chairman's winners (with robots ranked in the bottom 60% at their last event or those who choose to forego the World Championships) - approx 30 teams
• second pick from each Regional winning alliance - approx 80 teams
• bottom 40% of teams qualifying through District Championships - approx 70 teams
• Engineering Inspiration winners (with robots ranked in the bottom 60% at their last event) - approx 20 teams
• Rookie All Stars (with robots ranked in the bottom 60% at their last event) - approx 50 teams
• wait-listed teams (similar to the 2015 lottery) - approx 150 teams

Each year Detroit and Houston swap hosting of the Championship and the Festival.

Pros:
- eliminates "co-champions" issue
- at both events FLL and FTC can be present, compete and be inspired
- opportunity for teams at both events to meet others from around the world
- increases the level of competition at the Championship

Cons:
- does not address travel costs (makes it worse depending on the team and their location)
- is there a better way to divide teams from Districts - based on how they earned their points?
- what about teams that qualify in multiple categories?
- at each event Rookie All Star and EI are awarded at the division level only

*the number of teams shown in each category are rough estimates only. Someone more clever than I would have to confirm/adjust.

I think at the core, this could be the compromise that could get a lot of traction in the community and be blessed by the benevolent overlords in Manchester.

I think a way to discern between whether a team qualifies for the FRC World Championship or the FRC Open Championship is by normalizing district points systems to the regional model (this year with the change in how teams earn points from seeding rounds, you don't even have to do that). The top half of qualifiers from a regional qualify for Champs and the Open, and the bottom half qualify for the Open.

This means that if a team turns down a spot at Champs to go to the Open, the next team in line at the regional gets the slot to the Championship. I believe VRC is similar in that everyone who qualifies for their World Champs also qualifies for the Open. This means if you are a team based out of Houston that qualified for Champs in Detroit but didn't have the money, you can still go to the Open.

Fluidity of the waitlist causes a lot of issues, as does the somewhat vague objectives FIRST has for it. To get a nice even 50/50 split across a district or region, the actual time to plan travel for a WL team or any team may be slim to none.

I would like to know what current HoF teams and their mentors think about a change to the HoF induction policy to roll out in the next couple of years. Teams with x RCA/DCCA wins and or y consecutive RCA/DCCA wins go up for consideration for induction to the hall of fame. Anywhere between zero and N teams can be inducted annually. This year is what I think could be the most wide open race for HoF induction in 5 years.

I think anyone who has been on the block for a while could have given you 3 or fewer numbers for every year since 2010 or 11 of teams that would be inducted and probably get it right every year (I can tell you that the '12. '13, and '14 winners were the favorites before their awards team even put words to a page). The openness of '15 and on isn't a sign of weaker teams, it's the opposite. Over the next 5 years a lot of really impressive candidates for CCA are going to hit the judges table, to the tune of up to a dozen worthy candidates per year. If FIRST is going to open the floodgates for postseason play, might as well let some more HoF inductions trickle out since that's what we are supposed to be celebrating even more. Switching eligibility of HoF teams to get a certain number of guaranteed entries to champs followed by a recurring point bonus after 5 years (I want to say at least 40, since in the district system a DCA/DCCA winner nets 40 points).

Some other points to make if anyone still remotely cares about what I'm saying here.

-FTC World Champs and FTC World Open should happen at the FRC World Open and FRC World Champs, respectively. Flipping cities is a good idea.

-Let winners of the World Open qualify for World Champs the following year.

-To clarify HoF talk, induct teams as necessary at each event they attend.

-Another clarification: all teams that qualify for the Champs also qualify for the open. Those who forgo the Champs give the first Open team their slot. Teams that forgo both Champs and the Open send their spots either down the rankings of their event or district system, or they get turned over to FIRST for waitlisting, idk.

There is a fair argument that the idea of creating two distinct levels of postseason play would mean no one would want to go to the Open. The only way I know how to fix it is if you give a bid to the next World Champs to winners. Also, the idea of the two champs having disparate quality will exist regardless.

We'll probably only get a concession that allows swapping between events, but this plan might work.