New York City Regional Location and Week Change

[ollien]

I'm honestly kinda sad that it's not in Javits. The reason I was so inspired in FIRST was to see our robot in a huge venue. I haven't personally seen The Armory, but the 38 team capacity really puts me off.

I could care less about the rest. I just hate to see NYC downsizing so much. 66->38 is huge. (granted it was 50 before it went up to 66, so the team count might go to 50 at most, but even so.)

[Brian Maher]

Originally Posted by ollien

I'm honestly kinda sad that it's not in Javits. The reason I was so inspired in FIRST was to see our robot in a huge venue. I haven't personally seen The Armory, but the 38 team capacity really puts me off.

I could care less about the rest. I just hate to see NYC downsizing so much. 66->38 is huge. (granted it was 50 before it went up to 66, so the team count might go to 50 at most, but even so.)

To show you an alternative perspective:

24/66 = 36% of teams in playoffs
24/50 = 48% of teams in playoffs

I can speak from firsthand experience to say that smaller events present more opportunities for less competitive teams to have on-field success, which often translates to off-field inspiration. While FRC clearly isn't all about winning, these experiences, including simply being chosen for a playoff alliance, can be incredibly meaningful and motivating to students.

I have not been to a regional of more than 50 teams, so I cannot comment on the impact of the grandeur of a large regional like NYC, but I would like to point out that there is value in smaller events.

[ollien]

Originally Posted by BMSOTM

To show you an alternative perspective:

24/66 = 36% of teams in playoffs
24/50 = 48% of teams in playoffs

I can speak from firsthand experience to say that smaller events present more opportunities for less competitive teams to have on-field success, which often translates to off-field inspiration. While FRC clearly isn't all about winning, these experiences, including simply being chosen for a playoff alliance, can be incredibly meaningful and motivating to students.

I have not been to a Regional of more than 50 teams, so I cannot comment on the impact of the grandeur of a large regional like NYC, but I would like to point out that there is value in smaller events.

Of course, there is that advantage. I'm just disappointed is all. Thank you for that. As a team who has never made it past quals, outlooks look better.

[M217]

Originally Posted by BMSOTM

To show you an alternative perspective:

24/66 = 36% of teams in playoffs
24/50 = 48% of teams in playoffs

And let's not forget less teams often means more qual matches for each team.
Last year I have to say I enjoyed Tech Valley more than I did New York largely because with less teams, we ended up getting to play with pretty much everyone at least once, we got to see more of the teams make playoffs, and it even simplified our scouting significantly (by the end of day 1 about quals, I could rattle off some info about pretty much every team there).
I definitely think smaller events are convenient in a lot of ways even if they don't have the "shock and awe" effect of a 66-team regional.

[Sperkowsky]

Personally I am a big fan of the venue switch and a fan of them downsizing a little bit. We really do not know how many teams they will let in and will not know until we get closer to sign ups. With 66 teams a little more then 1/3 of teams make playoffs. 42 teams ending their regional and most of their seasons with only 8 matches is a bit ridiculous.

The big thing I am not a fan of is the week. With long island being week 5 it means we could be stuck with 2 back to back late regionals. It is not the worst thing in the world, but it means if we make champs we have very little time to raise the funds needed.

For that reason I hope that HVR is earlier in the season (Week 1-4) and if it is, it will become our second regional. That is... if we can get in to it.

We are also talking about going up to Tech Valley, but it would be quite expensive for us so we are hoping HVR works out.