Why Give Open Bids to the Championship?

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Monty Python

That's how FTC does it. To make it to the world championship you have to win a regional or the Inspire Award (there isn't even an Engineering Inspiration Award). The Inspire Award is the FTC equivalent of Chairman's. There are some teams that qualify almost every year (mostly the teams that qualify every year have excellent Inspire Award credentials). The competitiveness of FTC Champs is ramped up considerably from regionals without hurting the values of FIRST, so yes, I do think doing qualification on merit only would be a good idea.

This was one of the reasons I quit FTC, and my least favorite part of the program other than the Kit of Parts. In FTC, it's actually a lot worse. You have to be the Alliance Captain. Your Championship fate isn't determined by how good you are, but how good your qualifying schedule is. The first pick isn't guaranteed a spot, so you're SOL if you're the best robot at the competition and seeded 3rd because you had no partner one match.

If you make it qualification only, you have to make it more fair.