New FIRST competition structure in Michigan

[Cory]

Perhaps my biggest concern, which I forgot to even mention, is how will FIRST find enough volunteers?

They're already hard pressed to find enough qualified people for the key jobs each regional requires. Now Michigan will have 2.5 times the number of events they held in 2008, plus they will not have the volunteers that potentially came to the event with their out of state teams. Nor can they feasibly expect the same volunteers to volunteer twice as many times as last year. Where will all the new volunteers come from, and will there be enough qualified volunteers to fill crucial positions, without the event suffering?

[Madison]

I've read comparisons to organized high school sports and things like Little League, but it seems to me that these things would not be nearly as popular were it not for their professional counterparts. FIRST agrees, even, going so far as to teach us that a culture cultivates what it celebrates.

This feels to me like FIRST is creating Little League before it creates Major League Baseball.

[Craig Roys]

For those asking about cost structure:

$5000 intial fee (KOP and 2 district competitions)
$4000 State Championship
$4000 Out of state competition
$5000 FIRST Championship

I'm definitely intrigued by this. It does seem to be the way FIRST needs to head if they wish to continue to grow. Of course I'm a little biased being a MI team knowing we will get two competitions for our initial fee.

[dtengineering]

Alright... I had a response written up that was far too wordy, so here's the point form version:

Good:

• More plays for the $$ for Michigan teams.
• Tiered events let low to mid level teams experience the playoffs sometimes.
• Reduces shipping/drayage costs.

Bad:

• Kinda tough if you're from Windsor (or other community bordering Michigan) and were planning to play in Detroit. Now you have to spend MORE and travel FURTHER.
  
• "State only" model might be practical (except for above point) but undermines the broad-based international competition that is part of the great appeal of FIRST. Philosophically I like the fact that FRC is currently "blind" to political borders and would like to see it stay that way!

But how....?

• Will they do a quality tech inspection without the practice day?
  
• Will tech inspectors really keep a team from playing in their first match of the day for a minor rule infraction... say... the wrong colour of wires or incorrect length of pneumatic cylinder? These are all things that get identified by tech inspectors and fixed by a team on a practice day that are not likely to be noticed during an 8 hour fix-it window.

And on that note... will teams really get a better experience if they show up ten pounds overweight and miss their first five matches as they try to meet tech? How will that effect the experience of their alliance partners?


It will be interesting to see how it all works out.

Jason

P.S. There are some interesting parallels between this structure and the one announced for the VEX robotics competition earlier this year.

[acdcfan259]

- I can't possibly see this working in some states. If you look, most (maybe not most, but a lot) states have less than the proposed 40 per district event. What are the teams in Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine, Alaska, etc. supposed to do. I honestly can't see this as a feasible competition format for all of FIRST.

- As Cory said, we should strengthen the existing teams. There's enough struggling teams that could use help. Quality not quantity.

- The way it seems is that FIRST wants a team in every school, which won't happen. Sponsorships are already hard enough to come by without trying to compete with 10-15 other teams in your area.