One-Regional versus Multi-Regional teams

[Yan Wang]

We were strapped for cash this year so went to only one regional, our favorite. We seeded 2nd with a perfect record and went on to win the event and the GM Industrial Design Award. That's evidence enough to me that it's not really about going to multiple regionals - it's more about building a robot that fits your limitations but does all the things that it does well. As Ken W said above, performance after the 2nd regional really doesn't improve. And if you do good strategizing and watch some competition vids (scouting) before your first regional, you'll probably be on the same footing as you would be at the 2nd regional. But I think the most important point was brought up by Matt - the teams that go to multiple regionals are usually more established and more experienced. They'll do better anyway.

[ngreen]

Oh yeah. I forgot to say. Do what we do. We send the drive team and whoever else is interested to a scout a competition. This year we went to St. Louis to watch for the second year. We also take a video camera and go into the pits and interview teams. We got some good interviews from 1024 and 16 and several other teams. We get footage of how the game is played and then we have a meeting the next week where the rest of the team gets to watch what went on.

This has worked well the last two years:

We've seeded 1st(2003) and 11th(2004) at LSR
And 5th(2003 Archimedes) and 13th(2004 Galileo) by doing this.
We have also won all the awards I show below. Maybe competing in two regionals would help more but for those on a budget sending a small team to watch and film can do wonders.

[Natchez]

Thanks for your input. Since there are mostly comments, let me wrap-up the pros & cons of having a Warm-up Event.

Pros
-Communities will have FIRST events that currently do not have FIRST events. This would help to expose FIRST.
-Helps equalize the amount of robot-time between one-regional and multi-regional teams.
-Allows teams to help other teams in a low-pressure atmosphere.
-Allows rookies to get a feel for the flow of a tournament before attending their, often only, regional.
-MAY make for a more satisfying season for rookie teams thereby helping the retention rate.
-Teams have a scrimmage before their only regional.
-Improves the chances for one-regional teams to qualify for the Championships.
-One-regional robots work better at their event.
-Teams get to compete more during the season.
-FIRST gets to train refs in a low-pressure environment.
-FIRST gets to see the game being played before the first regional.
-Teams get to see different strategies before the first event.
-Minimizes the pickup points for FedEx.
-Teams learn how to put together a small local event.
-School gyms across the country would have robotics events on the same day.

Cons
-Teams have to host an event.
-Possibly takes money away from FIRST because teams don't feel the need to attend two regionals.
-Takes time away from family.
-Multi-regional teams now have more competition.
-Multi-regional teams have to compete cold with teams that have been to a Warm-up event.
-Puts teams that are one-regional teams and cannot attend a Warm-up at more of a disadvantage than they are now. Maybe a hardship waiver to just keep the bot until Saturday afternoon might help to solve this.



After reviewing the pros and cons, I don't see an issue with proposing this to FIRST. As I study it, I like the idea more and more. A special thanks to everyone that helped develop it.