Multiple Regionals

[archiver]

Posted by Dave, Student on team #308, Walled Lake Monster, from Walled Lake Schools and TRW.

Posted on 4/4/99 12:23 PM MST



Ok, before I start with any other this, I'd just like to say that there's only 17 days left until Nations! And I have to say, I'm looking forward to it!
Ok, here I go. This is my first year, and this is the one problem that I've seen. Teams are allowed to goto as many regionals as they like. Not only is this unfair to the teams that can't go, but it also gives the teams that do go an extra advantage in these ways:
1. The drivers get more time with the robot. As I am a driver, it really pays off to get as much time with the robot as possible.
2. The team gets more time to refine the robot. They can test it, modify it, and then at the next regional they can test it again and modify it some more. This gives them an unfair advantage over teams that are unable to do this.
3. Not allowing teams to goto more then 1 regional will make the regionals smaller, giving us less crowded pits and more pratice rounds. It will also bring the qualifying points down. My example of this is the Great Lakes regional. In Chicago, an average qualifying point of 200 would get you pretty high, while at Great Lakes, you'd be lucky to get into the top 20 with that.
Although it sounds as I'm whinning, I'm not. My team was planning on going to chicago, but unforscene circumstances did not allow us to go. I think that this change would be to the better, and it would also level the playing field alot.

Dave Hurt