A few questions about the awards:

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

Next to "Is there life out there?" the EI award is one of the great mysteries in life.
At some events it's the RUNNER UP CHAIRMANS AWARD and at others it's the SUPER ULTIMATE JUDGES AWARD (it can get you to the championships where a judges award can't). You don't interview for ir, not many people seem to know are really sure what you have to do or even what the criteria really is for the award in spite of FIRST having the criteria documented and I'm not sure if a HOF team has ever won an EI after getting into the FIRST Hall of Fame.

A big mystery indeed.
I suspect the criteria is independent between regionals and championships, depending solely on the judges of respective regionals.
We've never won one at any regional we ever attended. You can imagine how happy/shocked we were to get one at CMP.

I was told once it was the runner-up to CA. But not always as last season, I've seen EI winners at a regional win CA somewhere else (1138) and Miss Daisy (341) who did not get a CA in 2009.

EI is the hardest to attain? how do you prepare for such an award?