Districts vs. Traditional Debate 8/16 830pm EST

[Brian Maher]

Disclaimer: the contents of this post are my personal opinions and do not reflect the opinions of the mentors or students of teams 1257 or 2791 who are not me.

Originally Posted by IKE

Are 2nd pick winners being cheated in district system? Some will not advance to Worlds even though they won an event.

District Perspective

I have firsthand experience as one of those second pick winners in the district system, with 1257 at the 2014 Clifton District Event.

Do I feel cheated about not qualifying for Worlds then and there? Heck no. I will be the first to tell you that our status as the second pick of the winning second alliance did not demonstrate that we were capable of competing at anywhere near a World Championship level. We were picked for defense. Our robot barely touched the ball during elims, because we had no manipulator of any kind. We were just a reasonably well-driven drivebase.

One of my favorite aspects of the district model is the District Championship. It exists as an intermediate level for teams to prove themselves. For the most part, if a team wins an event, they will qualify for their DCMP. While it is challenging to plan for a DCMP trip on short notice, it is nowhere near the challenge of planning for STL. Once a team is there, if they have a less-impressive District Event record, they can prove that they deserve to compete at Worlds by performing well at the higher level of play. Conversely, if a team had a strong record at the District level, an okay showing at the DCMP will often lock in their spot.

With our newly attached catapult and some luck, we were able to rank #2 at the MAR Championship. We lost in quarterfinals to a well-constructed #7 alliance. We did not qualify for Champs.

Being able to compete with so many teams we looked up to and facing the challenge of earning a spot at Champs made MAR Champs 2014 (especially after going unpicked at both of our 2013 events) such an amazing experience for our team. It was far better than receiving an invitation to and event we would have been slaughtered at, or had to decline due to financial concerns. To this day, it has been far the single most inspiring event I've ever been to. It made me want to learn all I could about FRC, to help get my team back to DCMP and someday to Worlds. I am grateful for that District Championship; it's what got me hooked on FIRST.

This season, with consistent success at our MAR events, 1257 was ready to compete at Worlds. While we were close in 2014 and 2015, we did not have Championship-caliber robots. If we had made it to Champs, I would have felt like we were a fluke.

To reinforce my point of District Championships serving as a chance for teams to prove themselves, here are a few examples from MAR this year:

• 5624: winning first pick at both their district events, ranked 48 / 60 and unpicked at MAR Champs. Qualified for Worlds due to their success in district play.
• 1712: second pick of quarterfinalist #7 alliance and second pick of semifinalist #5 alliance at their district events; they demonstrated they could play at a high level at MAR Champs, captaining the #7 alliance to upset the #2 alliance. Qualified for Worlds on the strength of their MAR CMP showing, and captained the #6 alliance on Hopper.

TL;DR: District Championships exist as a chance for teams to be inspired and to prove themselves before qualifying for CMP.

Regional Perspective

I'd like to tweak IKE's question to illustrate the flip side of the coin:

Are semifinalist captains and first picks being cheated in regional system? Some will not advance to Worlds even though they may be among the most competitive robots at the event.

While I do not want to sound hostile, I want to show that the exact opposite question can also be asked about regional teams who may feel "cheated".

As a transplant from the district to the regional model, it strikes me as counter-intuitive how often competitive robots miss Champs because they were not on the right alliance to make it to finals.

I do not intend to insinuate that the teams who qualified for Champs at 2791's events, or other events, did not deserve it or their playoff achievements.

My proposed solution, while it is not perfect, is to award wildcards based on District Points earned at the event, not finalist alliance position. The District Points system encompasses all facets of the competition: qualification matches, alliance selection, playoff results, and awards. FIRST trusts this system to recognize achievement in districts. Why won't they at regionals?

TL;DR: It is also essential to ask if the current system is fair to regional teams with good robots, and district points should be used to give wildcards.

Two Questions for the FUN Crew

Is the district model more effective at advancing competitive teams, particularly strong semifinalist captains and first picks?

Is the Finalist Alliance position the best criterion for awarding wildcards, or should it be based on a more holistic approach such as the District Point rubric?