Predictions: The Return of One Championship?

[Nyxyxylyth]

Originally Posted by cbale2000

Can't speak for other events, but at least in the case of Michigan, there's a way to go before the "Local Championship" Experience is anywhere close to Worlds. The production quality is just not there yet. When District Championships start utilizing professional production companies again to put on a "real" show then we'll talk. If every District Championship had at least the kind of event production you see at an event like Festival de Robotique in Montreal, then we can looking at making them "replacements" for the the World Championship, currently they're basically just super-regional size events with district-quality production. Not to say the event's are bad, they just don't have the same impact.

Pretty lights aren't in the quals at CMP, so there's only a few hours of fancy production.

I'd rather not tack on another $20K+ of cost for MICMP.

[cbale2000]

Originally Posted by ASD20

I believe only about $1000 from initial registration goes to the District, like the post you linked says, but all of the $1000 for additional district events goes to the District. I had thought that the District gets all or most of the money from DCMP, but Q13 on this seems to confirm that they actually don't get anything, or at least used to not.

I think it's more that the $1000 goes to FiM, but not every event gets that funding available for their budget (though I imagine a portion of the costs are built into the cost of the field and transporting it). My point was more that it is possible to run events without collecting any additional registration fees, or at the very least with heavily discounted registration fees.

Originally Posted by Nyxyxylyth

Pretty lights aren't in the quals at CMP, so there's only a few hours of fancy production.

I'd rather not tack on another $20K+ of cost for MICMP.

Right, but if the intent were to have the State Champs replace the opportunity for all teams to be able to attend worlds once every 4 years (which was FIRST's described intent for going to 2 Worlds) and limit Worlds to one event, you would have to improve the quality, opportunities, and production of the State Champs in order to be an adequate replacement, IMO.

[Rangel(kf7fdb)]

Personally, I don't see a single championship making a comeback. I don't think it will be sustainable or reasonable when FIRST has to make that decision again and by that time most teams will be used to having multiple championships. In fact after so many ancient threads being referenced express opposite feelings about competition, there might be outrage if a single championship makes a comeback later in the future.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Rangel(kf7fdb)

Personally, I don't see a single championship making a comeback. I don't think it will be sustainable or reasonable when FIRST has to make that decision again and by that time most teams will be used to having multiple championships. In fact after so many ancient threads being referenced express opposite feelings about competition, there might be outrage if a single championship makes a comeback later in the future.

I do think it'll make a comeback.

Back when ChampionSplit was announced, I posited that, if certain events happened, FIRST would reinstate a single Championship event. The primary item in that "certain events" was lots of districts, along with associated DCMPs. Then you get 4x "Super Regionals" and one Championship Event above the DCMPs and any remaining Regionals. At one time, this was the theoretical supposed model that FIRST was targeting, and some speculation ran that the ChampionSplit was in response to it not coming fast enough. I still think that can happen, probably around the 2020/2021 timeframe when the current contracts are up.

However, getting the split back together is going to be like taking the BCS to the CFP. Can be done, but it's not easy.

[PAR_WIG1350]

Since a 4-level system has issues, perhaps the DCMP level could be dropped and the top n(%) of teams from each district (and maybe the winners of any remaining regionals) could immediately advance to the super-regional level.
They could keep the proposed team exchange program to add variety to the pool at each super-regional. International teams would likely still be competing in a regional-like system, and FIRST could try to distribute them evenly amongst the super-regionals. I think the elements are there to make each super-regional sufficiently CMP-like to achieve FIRST's goals. I also think it could easily be achieved within a decade.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by PAR_WIG1350

Since a 4-level system has issues, perhaps the DCMP level could be dropped and the top n(%) of teams from each district (and maybe the winners of any remaining regionals) could immediately advance to the super-regional level.
They could keep the proposed team exchange program to add variety to the pool at each super-regional. International teams would likely still be competing in a regional-like system, and FIRST could try to distribute them evenly amongst the super-regionals. I think the elements are there to make each super-regional sufficiently CMP-like to achieve FIRST's goals. I also think it could easily be achieved within a decade.

From the standpoint of reducing the costs and numbers of levels, this makes perfect sense. However, from the standpoint of FIRST's expressed goal of providing a "CMP Experience" to each team every four teams, it would be a step backwards.

As it turns out, in our fourth year, 3946 got that "CMP experience", through being the second-round selection of the #2 seeded alliance at a regional, and helping that alliance to regional championship (they wouldn't have made it without us, for several reasons). There was a LOT of great stuff going on all around St. Louis - great spirit, maker fairs, a great feat of engineering a few minute's walk away, and of course Dean's homework. Still, the key point for us for this to be a "CMP experience" was being at Karthik's live presentation. KARTHIK's. LIVE. Presentation. Without that, or an equally inspirational event (not impossible, but certainly in short supply), no event will provide that same inspiration as our trip to CMP in 2015. I think and hope that this presentation changed our team (and possibly the two rookie teams we mentored for 2016) for several years to come. Unfortunately, it appears that only one of our 25 2015 CMP attendees will be a team member in 2017, and that in six years as a team (including 2017), we shall have exactly two four-year veterans; none of our three year veterans (including my son and daughter, and another for whom our high school constitutes the family business -- whose grandparent, parent, and sibling are all on staff or faculty) intend to continue on the team for their senior year. If we won a trip to CMP (or split/quartered CMP) every four years, we will at best catch half of our members, though probably not that many.

[dmelcer9]

IMHO, I think that this is how it should be structured:

• 1 Championship- This will look very similar to the current championship.
• About 4-8 Super-Districts. These will be a bit bigger than the current districts, though about half the size of the proposed super-regionals. Each sends the top few dozen teams to champs.
• Competitions- these can be similar to current districts, though the whole super-district would be open.
• The top 50-100 teams in each Super-District can go to Super-District Championships.
• International teams continue with the regional system until they have enough teams to create a super-district.

Pretty much it would take the current district system, and make each district bigger. Having fewer districts allows FIRST to concentrate its resources in fewer district championships, and this system only requires 3 levels instead of 4.

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by Nyxyxylyth

Pretty lights aren't in the quals at CMP, so there's only a few hours of fancy production.

I'd rather not tack on another $20K+ of cost for MICMP.

The first year of FiM, we still had Show Ready at Ypsi for MSC. (And maybe after that, I don't remember when they were dropped at MSC in favor of producing it with local resources.)

As the opening video played, I thought, "Oh yeah, this is what I missed in the district events, the super woofers creating that rumble in my stomach."

I can do without the fancy lights and sounds too.