2015 Minnesota State Championship

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by DareDad

With now roughly 200 teams in the state, a 20% representation (FIRST's goal at Worlds) would be closer to 40 teams. I think I'll chat with folks about expanding state next year.

I don't think we could expand State's without adding a second day for competition. As it is, we get just enough matches for the 30 teams for qualifications, and that's running quals through to a very late lunch. Many teams, at this point, can't afford to have their students take yet another day off school, especially with all the tests and such that are happening this close to the end of the school year. Think about it... if your team went to two regionals and worlds prior to this, that's a minimum of 7 days out of class to compete - a week and a half off school. Additionally, adding another day would increase costs for many teams, as they would then need additional hotel stays. As it is, teams that aren't within easy driving distance of Minneapolis often send in a skeleton crew (sometimes just 2 people!) friday for load-in/inspection, and the rest of the team drives in Saturday morning and back home Saturday evening.

Yes, having more teams at State's would be awesome... but it adds a number of logistical issues that would, I think, end up hurting the event this late in the season.

[northstardon]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

I don't think we could expand State's without adding a second day for competition. As it is, we get just enough matches for the 30 teams for qualifications, and that's running quals through to a very late lunch. Many teams, at this point, can't afford to have their students take yet another day off school, especially with all the tests and such that are happening this close to the end of the school year. Think about it... if your team went to two regionals and worlds prior to this, that's a minimum of 7 days out of class to compete - a week and a half off school. Additionally, adding another day would increase costs for many teams, as they would then need additional hotel stays. As it is, teams that aren't within easy driving distance of Minneapolis often send in a skeleton crew (sometimes just 2 people!) friday for load-in/inspection, and the rest of the team drives in Saturday morning and back home Saturday evening.

Yes, having more teams at State's would be awesome... but it adds a number of logistical issues that would, I think, end up hurting the event this late in the season.

As a parent/mentor, I completely agree that limiting the number of missed school days is important. It helps that most teams are located within a relatively short drive of either Mpls or Duluth. Teams can also send skeleton crews to do load-in/inspection/pit set-up during regional events, right?

On a related note, would the number of missed school days be different if/when Minnesota adopts the district model? Looks like the Michigan FRC State Championship is a Wed-Saturday event.

[ehochstein]

Originally Posted by northstardon

On a related note, would the number of missed school days be different if/when Minnesota adopts the district model? Looks like the Michigan FRC State Championship is a Wed-Saturday event.

Potentially, some districts run Saturday-Sunday events and some run Friday-Saturday events.

District Championships are run exactly like a Regional is run. Load-in Wednesday night and everything else takes place Thursday through Saturday.

[northstardon]

Originally Posted by ehochstein

Potentially, some districts run Saturday-Sunday events and some run Friday-Saturday events.

District Championships are run exactly like a Regional is run. Load-in Wednesday night and everything else takes place Thursday through Saturday.

According to this event schedule, Michigan's championships had the opening ceremony and 7 hours of qualification matches on Thursday. Qualification matches for regionals like Duluth or Mpls don't start until Friday morning, right? That gives many teams the option of sending a skeleton crew Wed after school or early Thurs (missing 2 days of school), and sending the rest a day later, so that they only miss one day.

[ehochstein]

Originally Posted by northstardon

According to this event schedule, Michigan's championships had the opening ceremony and 7 hours of qualification matches on Thursday. Qualification matches for regionals like Duluth or Mpls don't start until Friday morning, right? That gives many teams the option of sending a skeleton crew Wed after school or early Thurs (missing 2 days of school), and sending the rest a day later, so that they only miss one day.

You are correct, but that skeleton crew will still miss more school. Additionally, if you're not part of a skeleton crew, you'll still miss two days of school by attending two Regionals, which is the same amount as the Michigan district championship.

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by northstardon

According to this event schedule, Michigan's championships had the opening ceremony and 7 hours of qualification matches on Thursday. Qualification matches for regionals like Duluth or Mpls don't start until Friday morning, right? That gives many teams the option of sending a skeleton crew Wed after school or early Thurs (missing 2 days of school), and sending the rest a day later, so that they only miss one day.

That's the beauty of the system in that you can have several events within a district all with different schedules to help meet your teams needs.

In 2014 we attended a Thurs/Fri district event (2 days), Fri/Sat district event (1 day), the District Championship Thurs/Fri/Sat (2 days), and the World Championship Tues/Wed/Thurs/Fri/Sat (3.5 days since the team left part way through Tuesday).

In total it was 8.5 days out of school. Only at one of our first events of the year were we advised some of the students needed to stay back on school days.

This year we looked for more of the Saturday and Sunday events so we could keep the kids in school longer and went to two events that were Saturday & Sunday and repeated our 2014 run of DCMP & WCMP but with worlds the team left Monday afternoon so it worked out to 6 missed days of school.

Keep in mind though depending on how far you need to travel you may need to have your load in crew leave early to get to the event when doors open. I believe there are some teams up in Maine with 3+ hour rides to get to some district events so they leave mid day.

Overall for the number of matches you play in addition to the decreased cost per play the travel time doesn't jump up as bad if you plan your events to use no or only 1 school day for the event.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by northstardon

As a parent/mentor, I completely agree that limiting the number of missed school days is important. It helps that most teams are located within a relatively short drive of either Mpls or Duluth. Teams can also send skeleton crews to do load-in/inspection/pit set-up during regional events, right?

On a related note, would the number of missed school days be different if/when Minnesota adopts the district model? Looks like the Michigan FRC State Championship is a Wed-Saturday event.

NE Districts Example

125 Attended 3 Districts, a regional, DCMP, and WCMP (all told, 6 official events)

One district was Sat/Sun, One district was during school vacation, WCMP was during another school vacation.

So, we missed 2 days for districts, 2 for DCMP, and 2 for the regional. All told not too bad. And we compete more than almost any other team.

[Chris Fultz]

Indiana districts were 2 day events - Friday / Saturday or Saturday / Sunday.
Load in was 5 PM the night before, so students missed at most 1 day of school.

The Indiana CHP was also a 2 day event, with 32 of the top teams, based on points. It was run just like a District event. Michigan, due to the number of teams, has a larger CHP event.

In a District system, the State CHP is also before the FIRST CHP because that is how you qualify for the FIRST CHP.

We did 3 district events and the IND CHP and the students only missed 2 days of school. One district was Sat-Sun, one was during Spring Break. We did miss 2-1/2 more days for the FIRST CHP.