Qualification for Disney in 2003

[Wayne C.]

Reading the above posts brings me back to the very start of the season and the firestorm of controversy about the change in the rulings.

FIRST cannot, in all fairness, change the rules next season without unfairly penalizing all of the odd number teams which were excluded this year. If they did that would create an even bigger controversy.

As for what qualifies you- well only the half dozen or so quality engineering awards FIRST has been posting with the Regional results are the ones which qualify. Spirit is great but is doesn't qualify you. It is a bit incredible to me that it doesn't considering the Inspiration part of FIRST.

The odd/even system has its flaws. It does exclude incredible teams. But that's the breaks. We hashed this out last October. Lets move on and prepare for 2003- the year of the ODD teams.
Lets have the ODD teams show FIRST just what the competition lost out on in 2002 by coming on strong in 2003.

BTW- despite incredible success (top 4 at RU, 2nd place, Eng. Inspiration Award) we were excluded and we are accepting it. The pain is still there but it will fade as we work on our goals. We are already prepping for our biggest season yet. Just think- we get an extra month to work on the next year's plans!


WC