Ontario Moving to District Model in 2017

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by WelderManiac

Disappointing indeed. I can perfectly understand how some little teams are going to benefit from this, due to the fact that their events are easily accessible. For teams like mine, our budget will have to nearly double to accommodate traveling to two events.

It's deeply saddening that FIRST Canada has (seemingly) thrown their cares about less powerful teams to the wind to fit in with places like Michigan and Indiana. Although I've never attended, I'm sure that districts are awesome; but to many teams in Ontario, they're completely unsustainable.

FRC Team 4732 attended the Greater Toronto East Regional last year and played 10 matches. The Greater Toronto East Regional site is now hosting a district event. Each district event guarantees 12 matches.

Your team is welcome to only attend one district event and get an experience that is likely very similar to the one you experienced last year, but with two more matches and 6 hours of bag time. By most metrics, you are getting more value out of the exact same event in the 2017 season that you did in the 2016 season.

On top of that, you also have the option to go to a second event at no additional registration cost. I do encourage all teams to go to events that they have essentially already paid for, especially since you will be allotted 6 hours of bag time between your first and second event and 12 additional matches. However, I don't expect Shawn Lim or any other staff member of FIRST Canada to put a gun to your head and show up for the second event.

I do understand that if you approach the the change from regionals to districts as a system that provides a $4000+ barrier between you and one of the postseason expos, you might be upset. However, the chances of merit qualifying off of one event hovers around 5%.