TRIPLE REPLAY ... the consequence for not doing Dean's homework!

[nobrakes8]

I personally think re-playing the game would turn out bad in the end.. I'm sure 90% of 1,000 teams would end up haveing a flip out right away and be completely stunned, but after a few days it would really fall into the favor of the good teams from 2005..

I know my team would probably keep the same design, maybe altering how we held the tetras so we could have a faster robot, and work on loading in the auto loader. Not to mention all the teams that copy Team 71's design ..

Any rookie that entered in 2006 with a replay of the 2005 game would probably not stand a chance and be discouraged for 2007 at how badly the vetran robots at every regional would beat them (not to say rookies won't have potential.. just playing a game in back to back years would kill anyshot for rookie success).. It's not fair to ask rookie teams going to UTC to possibly face a lineup of robots like HYPER, GaelForce, RAGE, Sie-h20-bots, MAX, GUS, Cybernights, BUZZ, Gael Hawks, Rocketeers, etc.. (very possible that lineup could happen since all those teams were there either in 2004 and/or 2005)..

[nic_radford]

Every time I read a post on this thread that only simply talks about the logistics of Triple Replay and how unfeasible they are, is really missing the point of why Lucien created it. In reality, we all know that Triple Replay has no more chance of becoming a reality than calling an "All-in" bet to draw to an inside straight. However, I feel it is an interesting vehicle for discussion -One of which most of us has avoided discussing- Why FIRST is collapsing under it's own weight. Dean wants more teams, but realistically doesn’t have a way to support more teams. Why isn’t nationals open to 1000 teams? Seems to me we can’t support the teams we have. Surely there are more scientists that we could name divisions after. Let me pose this point another way. If the amount of FIRST teams in the world were to double in size next year, would we still only have 400 teams at nationals? Then if not, why don’t we have more teams at nationals anyway?

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by nic_radford

Every time I read a post on this thread that only simply talks about the logistics of Triple Replay and how unfeasible they are, is really missing the point of why Lucien created it. In reality, we all know that Triple Replay has no more chance of becoming a reality than calling an "All-in" bet to draw to an inside straight. However, I feel it is an interesting vehicle for discussion -One of which most of us has avoided discussing- Why FIRST is collapsing under it's own weight. Dean wants more teams, but realistically doesn’t have a way to support more teams. Why isn’t nationals open to 1000 teams? Seems to me we can’t support the teams we have. Surely there are more scientists that we could name divisions after. Let me pose this point another way. If the amount of FIRST teams in the world were to double in size next year, would we still only have 400 teams at nationals? Then if not, why don’t we have more teams at nationals anyway?

If FIRST were to double in size next year, I think we'd have a dilemma. My math says that there were 1,438 regional slots this year. If the current rate of regional growth of three or four new regionals per year continues, we'd be looking at a total capacity of somewhere around 1,600 teams.

As for why FIRST doesn't have 1,000-team championships, the issue is simply space. Sure, if you cut out the FLL and Vex pits, you can probably squeeze another hundredish pits, but you've still got to give all those additional teams some matches. There's only a few ways around this problem, and none seem that good (add another day to the Championship or shrink divisions, which most likely means eliminating teams because of frequency constraints in the Dome).

Of course, that's just handling teams at events. How FIRST is going to handle distributing that many kits, answer that many questions, find that many volunteers...whoa momma! I tip my hat to any individual or group that can handle that much stuff.

[nic_radford]

Originally Posted by Billfred

If FIRST were to double in size next year, I think we'd have a dilemma. My math says that there were 1,438 regional slots this year. If the current rate of regional growth of three or four new regionals per year continues, we'd be looking at a total capacity of somewhere around 1,600 teams.

As for why FIRST doesn't have 1,000-team championships, the issue is simply space. Sure, if you cut out the FLL and Vex pits, you can probably squeeze another hundredish pits, but you've still got to give all those additional teams some matches. There's only a few ways around this problem, and none seem that good (add another day to the Championship or shrink divisions, which most likely means eliminating teams because of frequency constraints in the Dome).

Of course, that's just handling teams at events. How FIRST is going to handle distributing that many kits, answer that many questions, find that many volunteers...whoa momma! I tip my hat to any individual or group that can handle that much stuff.

So why are we campainging so hard to increase its size? Granted, the FIRST experience is the building of the robot. I know and I agree. However, it is really nice seeing the robot in action on national stage. And I believe that anciallry effect does as much if not more to inspire kids. Countless times, I've seen kids come back from nationals and say (to their own disbelief) "If I'd have only known that's what FIRST is about I'd have taken the build season much more seriously." Or, my favorite, "I finally get it now." And those kids do sooooo much the next year.

From what I just read, it would be very difficult put another 100 teams at Nationals, assuming we could find another scientist to name the division after.
I just don't believe it. Again, it's a question of money and someone's influence over people who have it. I say we take care of the teams we got now, and the rest will fall into place.

[jgannon]

Originally Posted by IMDWalrus

Michigan and California may be overly saturated

Though California and Michigan do have the most teams, they also have a large population to support these teams. The more important number to look at is population per team, which Art Dutra has compiled here. Michigan is indeed pretty well saturated, but it looks like there's still plenty of room out here in California. This list is useful in figuring out where new teams are needed. (On a side note, I know that there's no shortage of large companies in Minnesota that would gladly sponsor something like this... I can't figure for the life of me why they're at the bottom of the list.)

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by nic_radford

From what I just read, it would be very difficult put another 100 teams at Nationals, assuming we could find another scientist to name the division after.
I just don't believe it. Again, it's a question of money and someone's influence over people who have it. I say we take care of the teams we got now, and the rest will fall into place.

I think the scientist thing is handled; the Vex field was called Da Vinci.

FIRST can add another division in Atlanta. They would do so at the expense of FLL and/or Vex. You've got the channels (five fields with six robots is 30 channels, which is less than the 34 that users can't get to on their own), and there's space in the pits--if you move out Vex or FLL (or cut into the space of the site of the Vex social, which was a space this side of ginormous).

However, you've then got the question of how to resolve that fifth division when it comes to picking a champion. If someone can come up with a fair and equitable way of doing that, I'd love to hear it.

[Ctrl Alt Delete]

If that ever happened, I would go mad. I would hate for that to happen. It would be cool if next years competition, uses HOVER ROBOTS!...never know.