Are 8 play regional reasonable?

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by TCMJ1816

While watching Top 25 last night they brought up the point that many regional competition only offer 8 qualification plays per team. In Minnesota we have 208 teams, and a vast majority of those teams only get one event a year.

I see 2 major issues with this:
-This make the $5000 it costs to register for events pretty crazy, $625 a match isn't appealing for many of the low budget teams around FIRST.
-This also leaves the teams that do qualify for champs hugely unprepared. Most MN teams at champs will have ~20 plays, versus district teams that will have 40+ plays. EDIT: Many teams come into champs with 80+ plays

There definitely isn't a great solution to this problem, other than going to districts, but that has been addressed in the past.

Peter,
Are you aware of the push to get other regionals in MN.? Are you aware of the demand on volunteers for the existing events? Did you mention the number of teams served in the double Duluth event? The Minnesota events are some of the largest in the country.
In Duluth, the volunteer picture took an entire field to hold and the photographer was required to take the picture from the balcony. And still there were not enough.
There are people working tirelessly behind the scenes to continue to improve MN. However, among other issues, many rural teams in MN do not have enough adults to supply the volunteer pool at the event they attend. I know the volunteer coordinator personally and the job of manning all of the required volunteer positions is nearly impossible. While teams may not be happy with the number of matches at a single event, there are a variety of other alternatives that a team can follow. I can assure you (and everyone reading this) that every event in MN is working hard to get volunteers. Many come from other states, without their teams, to volunteer at MN events including the State Championship. I wish Illinois had a State Championship. We have tried to influence the state for many years but thus far have failed. A lot more of our teams get only one regional event and have no state champs to look forward to.

Nick,
Do you know of any other sport in Minnesota that has two championships? The State League is not as simple as you like to think.

WildStang has been around for a long time. Our rookie year, the only regional was in Manchester and the Champs were in Disney World. Our second year, there were two regionals, Manchester and Chicago. When other regionals started later, we traveled to Ann Arbor, MI. That event was further from us than Duluth. Teams work out the issues to get to events. Minnesota teams will work out this issues too. The same for Sydney, which I expect will be a wonderful event. While there will not be as many rookies as the first Minnesota event (I was LRI at that event), there will be more than twenty and some from very small, outback schools. I pray they all will have a wonderful time. I will do my best to make that happen, see you in a few days.