Not Pre-Qualified for Nationals? Then what's your team's plan to compete in Atlanta?

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally posted by Bill Gold
RE: Zach, Rich, and Cory-


Being a tier #2 team, and therefore not having much of a shot at getting an open spot, I would say that my team’s chances of qualifying for the Championship Event lie in our team’s robot design next season being worthy of a judged award at Sacramento and Silicon Valley, in addition to being lucky and either being a finalist or winning one of those events. I’m pretty confident in my team’s ability to win judged awards (we’ve won Leadership in Control at SVR the past two years). The rest is up to chance. Even if we qualify, we still have the daunting task of raising $4,000 for registration, plus last minute travel costs. We’ll see how things go.

Bill:

Unless I interpreted the new eligibility criteria incorrectly, last year's criteria of qualifying for the current year championship by winning a judged award and being a regional finalist are no longer in effect. Qualifying based upon the accumulation of 5 points during the 2003 season is possible for 2004 (that's how Team 48 qualified), but the points system will be discontinued for the 2005 season and beyond.

Currently, here are the only merit-based ways you can qualify for the 2004 Championship Event during the 2004 season.

From http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/2004/cmp_elig.htm:

Merit Based Qualifying Teams from the 2004 season

Regional Chairman's Award winners (1 per Regional)
Regional Engineering Inspiration Award winners (1 per Regional)
Regional Rookie All-Star Award winners (1 per Regional)
Regional Champions (3 per Regional)

Best of luck to you and your team.