UNC Asheville's Wild Ride

[Jacob Paikoff]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

2) Should there be a minimum team count for all events in either the traditional or nontraditional structure. If so, what is it? What protocols should there be for recourse to an event not reaching their number?

3) Should FIRST relax the restrictions on inter-district play to allow teams from outside the structure to populate events? For example, could a team from Knoxville, TN apply to join the NC districts? A team from South Carolina? A team from Virginia? Why or why not?

Glad to hear that 422 had a good time in NC.

I think the protocol was Marie asking you if you would be willing to change from Guilford to Asheville which added another team to the event. It's tough to say what the recourse should be since a regional would be in a different situation than a district. There was an event in Georgia last week as well that had 25 teams in attendance. I believe it's just a first year of districts phenomenon and won't be as big of a deal as the districts grow.

Second (third) questions, I'm all for inter-district play and think that it will improve in the second year of districts in CHS, NC, and PCH. The geography of those three districts should make inter-district play more common than its been. You guys were really ambitious to do an out-of-district event your first year in the system.

[wilsonmw04]

Originally Posted by Jacob Paikoff

You guys were really crazy to do an out-of-district event your first year in the system.

Fixed that for you.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

Fixed that for you.

Y'all should try it. It's hella fun.

I think a contributing factor to the issue was in NC they have 52 teams but effectively created 160 roster spots when they only needed 104. Teams were bound to gravitate to the 104 that were most convenient for them and Asheville is a pretty incredible city but not one near a lot of existing teams.

I think the fear of piling on events kept teams new to the system away from third plays. I think only us, Zebracorns, and T-Rex are the only 3 teams that planned for 3 regular season plays in the new districts, but I could be wrong. We skipped offseasons this year not just because the game was bad and the metallic macabre machine that we built was fit to be dismantled on sight, but also because we wanted to take full advantage of the district systems. GC would have been a very obvious showing of the benefits (we probably would have course corrected to Hampton Roads as well so we would have played a wider variety of teams) in that we get 12 matches to figure out what we have before we play for points. Asheville was still a good tune up for our drive team, who are all new or new to their positions.

I don't think I'm alone in thinking that opening the floodgates to any FRC team would have helped fill out the roster with teams that would earn just as many points as the other non NC teams but I see obvious drawbacks. I do agree for sure that it is something that will change over time; for instance, we will be campaigning to bring more teams across the lines for next year because I almost feel selfish in the amount of fun we had there.

[OccamzRazor]

With more plays the teams become more competitive. Most teams previously in NC would only show up to the NC regional, get 10 matches, and that was it if they didn't get picked for playoffs plus we had a ton of teams coming from out of the region to compete in the NC Regional that had already won other events. This model is really helping our in state teams get better already by encouraging more plays.

Most teams will only do two events in NC. I know T-Rex is going to all of the NC events and we are going to 4/5 of them counting State Championships. Most of the older teams are going for 3 events for practice even though only the first two events count for district points.

[Dezion]

Originally Posted by OccamzRazor

Most teams will only do two events in NC. I know T-Rex is going to all of the NC events and we are going to 4/5 of them counting State Championships.

So far, we have played 48 matches. It has been great to attend every event, and I am very excited to attend two more! I guess I'll explain that first.
First, you get more interaction with teams. If you play all twelve of your matches, odds are you've probably played at least once with each other team. If not, you've definitely played against them. Sometimes, you'll play either with or against a team five times in a row... (1533) We even get to have interaction with teams throughout events, since we'll meet them every time they play. 3336 was an alliance partner with us at Guilford, but we played against them in the QF at Wake. It creates friendly rivalries and great partnerships between teams. It's also really amazing to keep up with teams throughout the season and see them modify and improve their robot or add new features.

Originally Posted by bpw823

Us at 238 enjoyed our break from the freezing clutches of NH, and loved the venue, the people, and the environment of the competition. Thanks to 422 and all other teams who put on a great challenge for everyone! We hope to come back next year!

It was great meeting all the out-of-state teams (at this event and the others). I hope you all had time to check out a bit of what Asheville looked like and take in a bit of North Carolina. Hope to see you again next year!

Originally Posted by JohnM

Here's a segment that Western North Carolina's biggest news station did for the UNCA competition.

http://wlos.com/community/carolina-m...nt-team-glitch

Really great that this competition got noticed! 5854 did amazing and are well deserving of the credit. It's great to see that you guys are improving your robot throughout competition season too!

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

1) Should there have been a full elimination bracket at this 24 team event? Why or why not?

As for this, I'll say yes. Like you pointed out, reformatting the bracket would devastate the amount of points earned. If FIRST ever did decide a way to reshape 24-team events, there must be serious consideration on how District Points would be gave. Since that didn't exist at this time, it was definitely best to continue with 8 alliance captains.

Also, the best fix is for more teams to be encouraged to register for this event. How, I'm not sure though.

[Nate Laverdure]

Cool writeup Wil.

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

So, yes, the restrictions should be removed all together, or allow teams to choose which district they will compete in.

Or

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

I think a contributing factor to the issue was in NC they have 52 teams but effectively created 160 roster spots when they only needed 104. Teams were bound to gravitate to the 104 that were most convenient for them and Asheville is a pretty incredible city but not one near a lot of existing teams.

I think a lot of it has to do with promoting new teams as well. Western NC as a whole historically hasn't had nearly the amount of teams as the Central and Eastern areas in part because they would have to travel 3+ hours to get to the nearest competition. With the competition in Asheville we have seen a handful of new teams in the West and hopefully that will continue next year. All of that probably wouldn't have been able to happen if there wasn't enough interest in the Asheville competition.

[wilsonmw04]

Originally Posted by Monochron

I think a lot of it has to do with promoting new teams as well. Western NC as a whole historically hasn't had nearly the amount of teams as the Central and Eastern areas in part because they would have to travel 3+ hours to get to the nearest competition. With the competition in Asheville we have seen a handful of new teams in the West and hopefully that will continue next year. All of that probably wouldn't have been able to happen if there wasn't enough interest in the Asheville competition.

I think that is only partially true. Don't forget that WNC has historically been economically disadvantaged. It's good to see the local colleges, UNCA and WCU, starting to make moves to spread FIRST in the area.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by Monochron

I think a lot of it has to do with promoting new teams as well. Western NC as a whole historically hasn't had nearly the amount of teams as the Central and Eastern areas in part because they would have to travel 3+ hours to get to the nearest competition. With the competition in Asheville we have seen a handful of new teams in the West and hopefully that will continue next year. All of that probably wouldn't have been able to happen if there wasn't enough interest in the Asheville competition.

While all of this is true, I don't see why NC FIRST didn't try to push teams into the Asheville event by only running 3 districts and eliminating either Guilford, Wake or CU/JCC. There are not as many teams in Southwest VA as there are in Central VA, but a lot of us hoofed it out to the western part of the state for a travel play instead of relying on two district events in our metro area.

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

While all of this is true, I don't see why NC FIRST didn't try to push teams into the Asheville event by only running 3 districts and eliminating either Guilford, Wake or CU/JCC. There are not as many teams in Southwest VA as there are in Central VA, but a lot of us hoofed it out to the western part of the state for a travel play instead of relying on two district events in our metro area.

Hhm, yeah I'm not entirely sure. As a team located 20 minutes from Wake about an hour from both Guilford and CU, it sure it nice
There was an effort made to get more NC teams to Asheville though, Marie was in talks with teams after the registration process (likely when you were asked to move to Asheville) to help them attend as well. I'm not sure how successful it was, but I know that it was a situation that was actively being worked on.

[Jacob Paikoff]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

While all of this is true, I don't see why NC FIRST didn't try to push teams into the Asheville event by only running 3 districts and eliminating either Guilford, Wake or CU/JCC. There are not as many teams in Southwest VA as there are in Central VA, but a lot of us hoofed it out to the western part of the state for a travel play instead of relying on two district events in our metro area.

I believe the original idea was to run 4 32 team events as opposed to 3 40 team events to both try to lessen travel for teams and spread the events out a little bit more. All the other NC events averaged 32 teams. A couple more third plays from NC teams and the number of teams in Asheville wouldn't have been a problem.