Website Award Worth Nothing?

[Molten]

What are these points for? I don't recall anything like that in Indiana. I may be wrong though.

[Ed Law]

Originally Posted by Molten

What are these points for? I don't recall anything like that in Indiana. I may be wrong though.

It is a Michigan thing. There are other awards which do not earn any points either like the one we won at Traverse City. I don't think they are saying it is not important. They just want good robots to go to State Championship and not necessary good FIRST teams. Congratulations on the Best Website award. Keep up the good work.

Ed

[RyanCesiel]

Originally Posted by Ed Law

They just want good robots to go to State Championship and not necessary good FIRST teams.

That's what I thought at first as well but there are several awards that have nothing to do with your robot that still have points like:

Underwriters Laboratories Industrial Safety Award - 2pts
Chrysler Team Spirit Award - 2 pts
Johnson & Johnson Gracious Professionalism - 2 pts

It's kind of hard to see why these awards get 2 points when they don't have much to do with the robot.

[acdcfan259]

I would have to agree. I mean I can't really see why it wouldn't be worth anything. Maybe someone involved with Michigan planning could clear this up.

[Ed Law]

I agree with what you said. My only other guess is the awards that have 2 points are based on team performance (not necessarily robot performance) on the field and at the event whereas the awards that they do not give points are based on team performance off the field. This is just my opinion.

Ed

[RyanCesiel]

I've contacted FiM via their website. Hopefully I'll get something back soon!

[RyanCesiel]

Pamela Williamson sent this in response to my email:

The awards for which a limited number of teams (only the seven District winners) may compete at the State Championship, are not awarded points. Any of the participants in the State Championship Robotics Competition are eligible to win any of the other awards.

[acdcfan259]

Wait, what? That didn't really help clear anything up. Or am I just reading it wrong?

[Molten]

My guess it makes more sense if your in Michigan. Their whole point system doesn't make sense to me. Though, I've not studied it really.

[Alex Dinsmoor]

Originally Posted by RyanCesiel

Pamela Williamson sent this in response to my email:

I guess this clears up some confusion, but with all of the other awards that only the seven cam compete the teams are automatically invited to the State Championships (I may be wrong). With the website we aren't automatically invited, but instead have to earn their way with the skill of their robots. Giving at least two points would help these teams be able to go to the state championships to possible receive their award in person.

That's my $0.02

[Craig Roys]

Not sure how I feel one way or the other on the point values assigned, but the response does make sense. The point values don't end after you make States - those 64 teams are competing to qualify for the FIRST Championship based off of the points from their 2 District events plus points earned at the State Championship (at least the remaining spots after the championship is determined). Because of this it wouldn't be fair if a handful of teams were eligible to earn points at States that the rest of the teams were not.

Winning the Website award is a very cool thing and the teams that win it should be very proud whether or not points are awarded for it. Sometimes the intrinsic value of winning an award outweighs any extrinsic reward for it. Congratulations to those teams that won on a job well done.

[lafawnda]

wow that's really confusing...however, i can see how the website award is worth nothing, but if a team wins the award, shouldn't they be able to go to atlanta in case they win there??

[Alex Dinsmoor]

Originally Posted by Craig Roys

Not sure how I feel one way or the other on the point values assigned, but the response does make sense. The point values don't end after you make States - those 64 teams are competing to qualify for the FIRST Championship based off of the points from their 2 District events plus points earned at the State Championship (at least the remaining spots after the championship is determined). Because of this it wouldn't be fair if a handful of teams were eligible to earn points at States that the rest of the teams were not.

Winning the Website award is a very cool thing and the teams that win it should be very proud whether or not points are awarded for it. Sometimes the intrinsic value of winning an award outweighs any extrinsic reward for it. Congratulations to those teams that won on a job well done.

Needless to say we are very grateful that we won it, but we were just hoping to receive something extra for winning it.

Although now that I see more responces I am begining to agree that it may be better not to give it points. The state championship is for those who exceed in some aspect of the game ( or certian other fields like GP or chairmans) and not for a fancy website.

[IKE]

Not saying I agree or disagree with this, but FiM has a seperate set of awards called Cultural Transformation awards:

http://www.firstinmichigan.org/stati...Michigan_Pilot

Rules->supplement

5.2.3 Competition for Culture Transforming Awards at the State Championship
Separate from the robot performance side of the competition, there will be an elevated competition for the awards
which seek to transform Michigan culture. These awards recognize a team’s effort to inspire others through
community outreach. The Culture Transforming Awards include the Chairman's Award, Engineering Inspiration Award,
Entrepreneurship Award, Rookie All-Star Award and the Rookie Inspiration Award. Unlike all of the other awards, only
the District Winners of these awards will be eligible to compete for the award at the State Championship. As these
awards are not related to robot performance, a team does not need to qualify for the robot portion of the competition to
compete at the competition for these awards, although many teams may have robots that do compete. There will be no
entry fee for teams who are not competing with their robot and are only attending the State Championship to compete
for the Culture Transforming Awards.
To help the general public, as well as other FRC and FLL teams, better understand the level of commitment required
to win the Chairman's Award, all District Chairman's Award winners along with the Hall of Fame teams, will have a
reserved space in the lobby at the competition to set up a display of all of their outreach activities. The Chairman's
Award judges are free to look at the displays.

To this regard, the Chairman's, website, and some other do not count as points. Some say this means they are worthless, some say this shows they are priceless. Please read the rules carefully, think about how you might like it, and make sure that your team leader addresses this in the end of season survey.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by RyanCesiel

That's what I thought at first as well but there are several awards that have nothing to do with your robot that still have points like:

Underwriters Laboratories Industrial Safety Award - 2pts
Chrysler Team Spirit Award - 2 pts
Johnson & Johnson Gracious Professionalism - 2 pts

It's kind of hard to see why these awards get 2 points when they don't have much to do with the robot.

My guess is because the website award is peer judged. The others are judged by real judges at the event (with the exception of the safety award).