Qualifying Points

[M.I.]

On the page describing the new requirements for registration for the championship event (http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/ch_registration.htm) it says registration will be open "to ALL teams with three or more qualifying points". Aren't qualifying points decided at the end of matches? Then how can teams have three or more of them by the 14th of February, before the actual competitions start? Can anyone make sense of this?

[Kyle Hill]

Wrong qualifying points. Teams that were allowed early entrance to the competition either won past competitions or Chairman's Awards, or scored at least five "qualifying points" on this scale.

Teams may qualify to register through performance during the prior year (2001) based a point system. Five (5) points are required to register.
a. Regional or National Divisional winner—3 points
b. Regional or National Divisional finalist—2 points
c. Judged Award winner at Regional or National Event—2 points
d. Top Seed at Regional or National Event—1 point
e. Top Rookie Seed at Regional or National Event—1 point

So since there are so many empty slots at Nationals this year because of the financial impact of September 11th and the recession, they're knocking it down to three points needed to qualify.