Regional Selection Process

[Manoel]

Here's our criteria for this year:

• We're going to two regionals.
• They have to be back-to-back - Maybe going home for two days and competing again is bad, but flying 6000 miles home then back in two weeks is just plain stupid.
• We drive from regional to regional. Less than 375 miles is doable, less than 600 miles is manageable, anything over that is stupid.
• We spend a lot on air tickets, so we have to go somewhere culturally relevant. Events in the middle of nowhere aren't really an option.
• We like tough competition.
• We're from a big city (~ 1.3 million people, 4 million metro area) and from a developing country. What most teams consider "big" or "violent" or "not suitable for students" isn't really much for us.

A personal criteria that some mentors share and that will have to be relayed to the school is that we'd like to go to Week 1-2 events this year. Being that Carnival (country pretty much stops during that time) is on Week 1, that means less work/classes lost by mentors, which surely helps. Yes, shipping the robot on Tuesday and catching a plane on Friday/Saturday will be a bit stressful, but should be a better option.