New FIRST Word: MEGA-REGIONALs

[Wayne C.]

Originally posted by The Lucas
Thats why this is in the Rumor Mill. If it was posted on the FIRST site it wouldn't be a rumor now would it. Until a couple weeks ago the new robot controller was just a rumor started mid season last year (something Lavery said at one of the comps started it I think).

The first buzz I heard about MEGA Regionals was at the Chesapeake Bay Regional when many people noticed the Naval Academy could easily hold two fields and over a hundred teams. Unfortunately teams would no longer be able to play hackey sack in between pits Also notice the J&J Regional changed to a bigger venue. It appears these MEGA Regionals are already falling into place. Since the Championship Event can no longer accommodate all the teams that want to go, open-invitation MEGA Regionals make sense.

Rumor Mill aside.....This might be a nice idea but so far I have not heard any proclamation from FIRST that a tiered system or Megaregionals were being planned.
Our rationale behind expanding NJ was to accomodate many more NJ teams (50 x05) and allow a more widespread recruitment of NJ teams via the RINOS program. There will be quite a few new ones in the regional this year and next.
I have heard that by improving the regionals it might take some of the emphasis on all teams attending the Nats. Eventually, if FIRST continues to think in the small numbers they do now, there will be very limited space at Nats to attend due to dozens of Regional contributors being limited to a few teams each. I can see that day when Nats are based on that season's qualification.

If somebody else heard different I would like to know. The idea of going through tiers over many weeks to qualify for nats is undesirable and scary. The expense would be huge and the need to remove students from class even longer would be prohibitive.

WC