Are 8 play regional reasonable?

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I have been really biting my tongue throughout this conversation, but Andrew, really,

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

My god man... can you reasonably say that 8 matches gives you a better return on your investment (time/money) than 9 would?

This is one of the most massively disingenuous arguments that I've ever heard. The number of matches, as DareDad points out below, is just one of very many columns when evaluating the impact of an event on a team.

Originally Posted by DareDad

That depends on how you measure return on investment.

I understand that you measure it only on the number of times the five people with drivers badges get to play qualifications matches.

Do you understand that other people may have different metrics?

Let's try to break this down:

What are some the benefits (I don't think anyone here is arguing that there any or of injury due to) of playing more matches?

• Drivers get additional minutes on the field
• Team feels a sense of accomplishment by seeing their robot play more times
• Rankings are more likely to be representative of the quality of the robots/drive teams

Now let's take a look at some of those other "columns in a spreadsheet" about event quality/value:

• What does the event physically look like? Is there inspirational value in playing in larger, sometimes iconic venues with more production value?
• How many teams are students interacting with? Is there inspirational value in the diversity and reach of teams at an event?
• What is the team experience like due to quality of volunteers? Is there customer service value in not spreading volunteers too thinly over consecutive weeks, and recruiting volunteers (particularly key ones) of lower caliber out of necessity?*
• How comfortable is the event for a teams due to scheduling? JAMMING 10 matches into a schedule that should really only have 9 is not just stressful and tiring for volunteers, it can also be stressful and tiring for teams. Besides the five drive team members that are participating in those extra matches, the rest of those teams need to be present, in the stands and in the pits - and running schedules too long (and neglecting time for delays on the field) isn't fun for anyone. There gets to a point where it goes from fun to frustrating, and at what gain? A match?
• Many other considerations that I haven't touched on, especially regarding team geography and cost of attending more than one travel event.

All of this combined with the harsh reality that many regions are at their capacity for what they can afford in terms of number of regionals, but aren't where they need to be in terms of (volunteers, viable venue space, geography of teams) to be come a district simply means that some events will have less plays than others. While this is unfortunate, it's the reality of the situation, and frankly, doesn't have the real impact on real teams that you're promoting.

There are a lot of really smart people working very hard to find the optimal configuration to run their events to the greatest benefit of the teams. Despite what others in this thread have said, I'm not under the impression that anyone is trying to "cheat teams out of matches", or are trying to promote systems that worsen team experiences. Every event and region have a different set of challenges, and attacking or just frankly being rude to the folks that are there, in those trenches, trying to make things the best that they can for their teams is beyond not being a gracious professional, it makes you appear to be ignorant as well as aggressive.

I'd highly encourage those involved to go back and re-read the progression of this thread for the past three pages or so.

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*Sidenote: Take this into consideration. The number of times that I've heard actual teams complain about an event being ruined for them because of a bad interaction with an ill-place or under-trained key volunteer far exceeds the number of times that I've heard actual teams complain of playing 8 matches instead of 9 or 10 or 13(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) <= to quote Bailey.