max no.of teams?

[May_Walter]

Hi, just out of curiousity, is there a limit to the number of teams participating in one regional? (min & max)
I mean, it is only logical to limit the number so it would be fair, on the other hand say you have a max number of 70 teams, and you have 80 teams listed to the Israel regional it won't make sense to have two 40 team regionals..

[Nadav Zingerman]

I believe there is no strict rule about this, but rather that it is under the discretion of the Regional Director to decide on a course of action when a regional gets too big.

P.S: 75 / 2 = 37.5, not 35

[EricH]

The maximum number of teams at an event is determined by the Regional Director based on a number of factors. These factors include venue size, whether or not the event is in Michigan (40-team cap in MI), and most likely how many teams are in the area.

Maximum limits for each event can be found on the FIRST site by looking at the regional list and adding the # of teams registered for a given regional to the # of open slots. There will also be a few "hidden" slots, reserved for late-registering rookie teams and opening up at some point after Kickoff.

There is no minimum limit. There is, however, a practical limit, as if you have less than 24 teams, your elimination rounds will be reduced in number.

[kevin.li.rit]

Originally Posted by EricH

There is no minimum limit. There is, however, a practical limit, as if you have less than 24 teams, your elimination rounds will be reduced in number.

I've heard that the minimum was 30 available spots due to the cost of holding the regional. I've never seen a regional with less than 30 spots. Even in pretty cramped venues. Like WPI and Riverbank state park.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Coffeeism

I've heard that the minimum was 30 due to the cost of holding the regional. I've never seen a regional with less than 30 spots. Even in pretty cramped venues. Like WPI and Riverbank state park.

Israel Pilot, and possibly Brazil, had fewer, I think. The Israel Pilot went full-fledged the next year, while the Brazil Regional no longer exists due various factors (though I wouldn't be surprised if lack of teams was one of them).

I've heard of a regional with < 30 teams, but I'm fairly certain they had more spots.

[dtengineering]

When events get "too big", but you still want to bring everyone together you can go to two playing fields (like some of the 70+ team GTR events did) if you have the room, or you can run two divisions.

We did that at the 54-team BC VEX championships this year, running an "A" division for the more competitive teams and a "B" division for the those who hadn't been having as much success. That model might not work well for FRC, as the teams had had four previous competitions over four months to figure out who was "A" and "B", but it worked great for us. The B division champions were happier than the A division champs because it was their first time getting to "go all the way".

Jason

[IKE]

Detroit often had around 30-35. It was crazy intense. With 6 teams out at once, the average spacing is 5 matches. Since you can do the exact average, that sometimes meant that you might have a match seperation of only two matches between one match, and then the next one. As far as maximum, with 60 teams and the "standard" FIRST schedule, you would only get about 8 matches. With 80 teams, this would go down to 6 qualifying matches. Another way of looking at it would be 2 minutes of play time relative to every week in the build season.

IKE

[Racer26]

1075 has competed in all sizes of events, not including championship. Waterloo is a small event (30 teams this year). This is mostly a function of the space to house them. The pits are small, you could maybe fit 40 teams MAX. GTR this year was a mid-size event at 52 teams. This is mostly a function of funding and active teams in the area. In past years, GTR has seen as many as (IIRC) 84 teams, playing 2 fields, and a 12 alliance elimination bracket.

The small events are intense as IKE says. 30 teams means a 5 match average spacing, some as short as 2 matches (on, off, on). This is more than a little insane if you have to change your bumper color, and fix something that broke.

Bigger events are more relaxed, but you have to be at the top of your game if you want to make elims.

[jsasaki]

Originally Posted by Coffeeism

I've heard that the minimum was 30 available spots due to the cost of holding the regional. I've never seen a regional with less than 30 spots. Even in pretty cramped venues. Like WPI and Riverbank state park.

Our Hawaii regional only hosted 28 teams this year but the maximum was 30 on TIMS
Hopefully next year we can get more out of state teams but with this economy it's hard

[yarden.saa]

In more 3-4 years I think there will be 80 teams.
There won't be 2 regionals it cost much then First can handle. so the solution is 2 division that are 2 seperated regional in every division there will be all the award....

[idahorobot]

Originally Posted by IKE

Detroit often had around 30-35. It was crazy intense. With 6 teams out at once, the average spacing is 5 matches. Since you can do the exact average, that sometimes meant that you might have a match seperation of only two matches between one match, and then the next one. As far as maximum, with 60 teams and the "standard" FIRST schedule, you would only get about 8 matches. With 80 teams, this would go down to 6 qualifying matches. Another way of looking at it would be 2 minutes of play time relative to every week in the build season.

IKE

Worse it's about $ 4000 a match. Yikes!

[1986titans]

Minnesota had the double regionals again this year (10,000 Lakes and North Star), right across the street from each other with 63 teams at each for a total of 126 teams. I don't think this could happen at many other places though, as two locations suitable for a regional probably aren't going to be that close together. That said, they still seem to be reaching their capacity as at least one team got a rectangular pit space at North Star because there wasn't anywhere else to put a pit.

[Vikesrock]

Originally Posted by 1986titans

That said, they still seem to be reaching their capacity as at least one team got a rectangular pit space at North Star because there wasn't anywhere else to put a pit.

From what I've been told, 64 is the hard cap for both of these regionals. It will be interesting to see what happens if the number of MN teams continues to grow the way it has been the past few years. At 105 teams this year we are getting close to filling both events without any slots for out of state teams.

[O'Sancheski]

Originally Posted by Coffeeism

I've heard that the minimum was 30 available spots due to the cost of holding the regional. I've never seen a regional with less than 30 spots. Even in pretty cramped venues. Like WPI and Riverbank state park.

the WPI regional only had 29 teams... 5 teams didn't get picked in elims...