[BB]: Regional Variations & Bagging It

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

I can't speak for the other regionals, but I bet the WPI Regional is probablyActually, the more I think about it, the idea behind to moving a large number of Regionals from convention centers and sports arenas to college sports arenas makes a ton of sense.

Convention centers and sports stadiums don't really have anything to gain from having lots of motivated high school students in attendance, other than the earning money from the rent part. But colleges have a lot to gain from having lots of motivated high school college students on their campus. Colleges would most likely be a lot more motivated to get the expenses down while getting more fun and excitement out of the event, as this excitement would likely correlate well with the student's perception of the school.

Nearly everyone in FRC needs to go to college before they'll become an engineer, scientist, or entrepreneur aspiring to change the world. Lots of colleges offer existing FIRST scholarships, but a large number remain unclaimed. By hosting a regional, this gives students a chance to really get to know a college, and I'd surmise would make them more motivated to apply for potential scholarships offered by the school hosting the regional.

Win for students, win for colleges, win for FIRST.

I can't agree much more with this statement than I currently do. There's a reason a number of my favorite regionals are held on college campuses, and why they're so good because of it.

Originally Posted by Bob Steele

When many speak of the 10 rounds of qualifiers being the solution to our problems of getting the best teams on the field for the finals... we need to ponder this...

How many regionals have you been to that have all of the rookie and younger teams ready to start playing at 12:00 on Thursday?
I have NEVER been to a regional where that was the case...

So you go into your qualifier on Thursday and your partners have not been inspected... or can't pass inspection.... many teams need all of Thursday to get ready....it is a god send to many of them....

It also gives those of us that are ready plenty of time to help them get ready.
Now we are all playing.... noon....

If the game is anything like last year.. you will see even more qualification situations.... last year if one team did not make it on the field.... it was a free for all on that empty trailer....

If that happens again Thursday will NOT represent BETTER qualifications...
It will be much worse...

I would rather have 7 good qualifying rounds than 10 with 3 on Thursday...with only half of the robots showing up...

I agree. I'm all for more matches for a number of reasons, but not at the cost of Thursday. Heck, I can't even count how many VETERAN teams take until 2-3pm to get their robots inspected. Between uncrating, setting up pit spaces, attaching/modifying fix-it window components (or whatever the equivalent system is this year), calibrating cameras, fixing inspection violations (however minor they may be), scouting, and helping out other teams, very few teams I know are ready by noon on Thursday. And shrinking that time they have on Thursday is only gonig to make it more difficult for them to help the teams that really are struggling.

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

I disagree. Thursday matches will lead to a more representative top 8. Not because they are on Thursday but in simply increases the sample size.

In addition to the increased sample size, the good team are more likely to pass inspection and won't be as effected by the lack of practice time (due to practice robots). The 'bad' teams are the ones more likely to miss matches or have mechanical/electrical issues.

It is true that more robots missing will lead to more variability. But a missing robot will effect the good and bad teams equally (assuming the match schedule is random). I think three more matches clearly outweighs this potential variability.

I'm all for more matches!

If the top 8 is all you care about, sure. It will be a more representative top 8 of how all the robots performed between Thursday at noon and Saturday at noon. It still won't be very representative of machines that improved as they were completed/fixed during the event, and it still won't be representative of teams' alliance partners missing matches because they haven't passed inspection.

But that's hardly the only point of a FIRST event. I'd rather play 7 matches and have a slightly worse top 8 than play 10 without getting half the robots on the field for their first match or two.