[FRC Blog] Two Championship Survey Results and Path Forward

[northstardon]

Originally Posted by George Nishimura

8 teams, potentially from very different parts of the world, are going to travel all the way to New Hampshire/Detroit/wherever, to potentially play two (at most three) 2.5 minute matches?

2 of the teams may never play either.

Yes, there are logistical issues associated with bringing the two alliances together for a summer final final. While I think that some of those issues could be resolved, I'd also like to bump an alternative idea...fly the alliance that wins the Houston championship event into St. Louis/Detroit the following weekend, and have the battle of champions take place during that second event's closing ceremonies.

Some potentially favorable aspects of this idea (to chew on or chew over)...

- Automatically cuts the travel costs for the winning alliances in half (since one alliance is already on site).

- It also limits the additional costs of staging that battle of champions (field/volunteers/FIRST staff/other infrastructure already on site).

- FIRST covers all of the travel expenses for five members on each of the four teams that win in Houston (drive team plus one). Other team members/mentors/coaches travel on team's dime. They'd have a few days to fundraise/talk with their sponsors to help defray those out-of-pocket costs.

- If an international team is on the winning Houston alliance, they stay for the week in between, with expenses covered by FIRST (including cost of changing flights home). The international teams traveling to Houston would need to be prepared for this potentiality.

- Otherwise, winning alliance flies in on Friday afternoon, limiting the number of lost school days. Bagged robots shipped from Houston directly to St. Louis/Detroit.

- Fly-in championship teams wouldn't have to move/set-up their pits...there could be well-equipped "Visiting Champions" pits waiting for them at the second championship. Pit equipment might be provided by sponsors/equipment suppliers, or loaned by other teams at the second event. Second event teams that didn't qualify for their Einsteins (or even for their subdivision playoffs) might even volunteer to "host" one of the four fly-in teams, and lend extra hands/equipment/team spirit.

- If FIRST wanted to crown a single CCA winner, they could also fly in the presenters from the team that won the Houston CA. Award the second event's CA at the start of their Einstein's, then have the two Championship CA winners make one final presentation between then and Closing Ceremonies. And maybe those final presentations could be made in front of a very distinguished panel of judges?

I'm sure that there are logistical issues that I've missed, or that I've poorly characterized at least a few of the issues that I've raised. My intent is merely to see if there's interest in discussing how this type of rapid-fire final event might work.