District Event Explanation

[joetheflagguy]

Our team has been competing solely at regionals for the past three years. Now the Chesapeake Region has moved to a district system, which is completely new to me. Can someone explain how district qualifiers work in comparison to a regional championship?

[GeeTwo]

With districts, you get two events for the registration cost of one. However, where with regionals you know at the end of the event whether you earned a berth to CMP, with districts, you are fighting for a berth to DCMP (District Champs), which generally correlates more closely with your seeding rank than with whether your alliance won the event. Looked at externally (it doesn't look like LA/MS will be going districts any time soon), it seems like a wash, but most of the comments I've read from those who've been through the transition seem to indicate that it's an improvement over the regional model. The only ones I've noted with a negative reaction to the change are those who need to raise additional funds for hotels to attend two district events vice one regional. It also means that you won't find out if you're qualified for CMP until much too late to raise the funds for registration or travel; you essentially have to have it in the bank, or at least promised as a grant or loan before DCMP.

[Christopher149]

Also, the events are generally smaller than regionals (30-40 teams vs up to 70 teams), so it's easier to get to eliminations, meet a higher proportion of the team attending, etc.

[Ari423]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

... It also means that you won't find out if you're qualified for CMP until much too late to raise the funds for registration or travel; you essentially have to have it in the bank, or at least promised as a grant or loan before DCMP.

There were a few teams from MAR last year who weren't planning on attending CMP but scrambled to get the funds in about a week. Personally, I like the district model better because you get more playing time and a chance to make improvements between competitions (think 2 Thursdays at regionals instead of 1). I think the ranking system is very fair and consistently advances only the best teams. I just wish there was a little more heads up on registration for DCMP and CMP. We had to raise $4000 for DCMP registration in 4 days! (we did it though)

[FrankJ]

The Administrative Manual describes the qualification procedure for districts. Here is the 2015 manual I expect the 2106 will be similar. Obviously we will find out when they issue the 2016 rules.

A few of the bigger differences

District events have fewer teams and more seeding matches per team.

You get an eight (actually six) hour unbag window to work on you robot outside of the event. This can be divided into short periods. This is to compensate for the lost day compared to a regional. The same fabricated parts allowance applies to the district event and unbag window as a regional

You earn points at two district events to qualify you for your district championships (DC). The point break down is in the administration manual. Event winners are also invited to DC. You do not qualify to go directly to worlds. The same regional event awards that get you to worlds will get your there at a district championships. After that it based on points earned at the championship + district events and slots available to determine if you go to worlds.

[Ari423]

Originally Posted by FrankJ

The Administrative Manual describes the qualification procedure for districts. Here is the 2015 manual I expect the 2106 will be similar. Obviously we will find out when they issue the 2016 rules.

A few of the bigger differences

District events have fewer teams and more seeding matches per team.

You get an eight hour unbag window to work on you robot outside of the event. This can be divided into short periods. This is to compensate for the lost day compared to a regional. The same fabricated parts allowance applies to the district event and unbag window as a regional

You earn points at two district events to qualify you for your district championships (DC). The point break down is in the administration manual. Event winners are also invited to DC. You do not qualify to go directly to worlds. The same regional event awards that get you to worlds will get your there at a district championships. After that it based on points earned at the championship + district events and slots available to determine if you go to worlds.

Actually you only get 6 hours of unbag time (as always subject to change in the new rules). Also the usual abbreviation for District Champs is DCMP. You can get there with the usual awards, or having one of the highest district scores. Your district score is based on your performance at your two district competitions. Depending on the size of your district, the top so many teams will be invited to DCMP. In MAR it's usually the top 50 or so.

[Richard Wallace]

The biggest change I have noticed is a much shorter time elapsed between matches at District events.

Bring a match-ready robot, or don't expect competitive success. You won't have time to catch up. Average pit time is about twenty-five minutes, and drive teams often move directly back into queue after leaving the field.

[Mr V]

As Richard mentioned a team may want to change how they approach the build season and build their robot.

If you are a team that has only attended one Regional in the past you will now play many more matches than you have in the past. Even a team that has typically attended 2 Regionals will most likely see more matches. So durability of your components or the ability to quickly change items that are likely to wear out or be broken is of high importance.

The other thing to consider is targeting winning awards. Awards earn you points, 5 for most of them. In the PNW district there typically have only been 1 or 2 points separating the last team to earn an invitation to DCMP and the highest team on the list that did not make it.

As others have mentioned because the time is so short between the last district events and DCMP you need to be prepared if you do earn a spot at the last minute. By the 4th or 5th week some teams do know that they are guaranteed a spot but quite a few may not know until just a few days before the event.

So I highly suggest monitoring the points you have earned, and if it looks like you may qualify start the process to get approval from the school, and let them know that it is a maybe. Also consider working on having the funding available before you have 2 days to make the commitment and pay. That may mean getting a sponsor to commit to paying a portion of the DCMP fees IF you qualify or it may just mean raising more funds and if you don't use them having a head start for next season.

The other thing is if your team has been a 1 Regional team is to plan on a longer season/more meetings. The big advantage of the District system is that guaranteed second play where you can; fix something that didn't work, try a different strategy, ect and apply the lessons learned from your first event (or second if you qualify for DCMP).