[FRC Blog] More ‘Something New’ at the FIRST Championship

[Chris Hibner]

Wow, an entire thread with positive comments. I must be on the wrong forum... but my URL still says chiefdelphi.com. Hmmmm...

[Whippet]

Originally Posted by Chris Hibner

Wow, an entire thread with positive comments. I must be on the wrong forum... but my URL still says chiefdelphi.com. Hmmmm...

But this update interrupts my workflow! Now I have to keep all four streams running even longer...

[Woetie]

Great improvement by FIRST. More teams that get reconised by FIRST for there outstanding work!

I have one questiong though, hopefully some one can anser it for me:
Do you only qualify for E.I. if you have won this award at regional level (the same thing that goes for chairmans) or do all the 100 teams in that division qualify for E.I.?

Can't wait to see all the teams in St. Louis again this year!

Greetings from Team 4481 The Rembrandts, The Netherlands

2014 NC Regional Engineering Inspiration winner
2013 NC Regional Rookie All Star winner

[brandon.cottrell]

Alright. I'll be the first person to say I'm not so sure about this.

While I like the idea of certain awards being district level, because many teams deserve Quality awards, Innovation in control and Industrial design; I feel like with certain awards making them district level extremely decreases their sentimental worth. With a lot of teams it's difficult to explain awards like Chairman's to people outside of FIRST, but with things like Imagery it's as simple as: "They said we were the best looking out of the ~200 teams there". Now it's something more like: "They said we were the best looking, but only out of the 60 we were with and 3 other teams also won this award and they were really cool too."

The other thing that puzzles me is FIRST tries to stress that EI is not a "second place" to Chairman's. But now that 4 teams win it a year as opposed to 1, and the Championship eligibility is now only for 1 year, they are very unequal (Also on a side note, has anyone noticed that they call it a "Regional Chairman's Award" and an "Engineering Inspiration award"?).

While I can't really argue with the way FIRST works, and I'm very gracious to be in it, this kinda gets to me.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Brandon1266

Alright. I'll be the first person to say I'm not so sure about this.

While I like the idea of certain awards being district level, because many teams deserve Quality awards, Innovation in control and Industrial design; I feel like with certain awards making them district level extremely decreases their sentimental worth. With a lot of teams it's difficult to explain awards like Chairman's to people outside of FIRST, but with things like Imagery it's as simple as: "They said we were the best looking out of the ~200 teams there". Now it's something more like: "They said we were the best looking, but only out of the 60 we were with and 3 other teams also won this award and they were really cool too."

The other thing that puzzles me is FIRST tries to stress that EI is not a "second place" to Chairman's. But now that 4 teams win it a year as opposed to 1, and the Championship eligibility is now only for 1 year, they are very unequal (Also on a side note, has anyone noticed that they call it a "Regional Chairman's Award" and an "Engineering Inspiration award").

While I can't really argue with the way FIRST works, and I'm very gracious to be in it, this kinda gets to me.

400 teams at champs, ~100 per division. Still a prestiguous award.

Also, EI has always only given 1 year of qual. Only Champ Chairman's gets lifetime.

[AllenGregoryIV]

Originally Posted by Brandon1266

Alright. I'll be the first person to say I'm not so sure about this.

While I like the idea of certain awards being district level, because many teams deserve Quality awards, Innovation in control and Industrial design; I feel like with certain awards making them district level extremely decreases their sentimental worth. With a lot of teams it's difficult to explain awards like Chairman's to people outside of FIRST, but with things like Imagery it's as simple as: "They said we were the best looking out of the ~200 teams there". Now it's something more like: "They said we were the best looking, but only out of the 60 we were with and 3 other teams also won this award and they were really cool too."

The other thing that puzzles me is FIRST tries to stress that EI is not a "second place" to Chairman's. But now that 4 teams win it a year as opposed to 1, and the Championship eligibility is now only for 1 year, they are very unequal (Also on a side note, has anyone noticed that they call it a "Regional Chairman's Award" and an "Engineering Inspiration award").

While I can't really argue with the way FIRST works, and I'm very gracious to be in it, this kinda gets to me.

It's out of closer to a 100 teams for each division so it's not that much different. Also it gives more teams a chance to win. How different is it really when you go back home and tell your supporters. They won't even know the difference unless you point it out.

Engineering inspiration isn't 2nd place chairman's and now that is very clear. It's judged differently and now it's awarded differently as well. Championship EI has been a bit of a strange award for awhile anyway. It was often rather quickly overshadowed by the CCA winner. I think by giving it out at the division level it will actually get more recognition. Overall a good change for FRC.

[rsisk]

Originally Posted by Woetie

Great improvement by FIRST. More teams that get reconised by FIRST for there outstanding work!

I have one questiong though, hopefully some one can anser it for me:
Do you only qualify for E.I. if you have won this award at regional level (the same thing that goes for chairmans) or do all the 100 teams in that division qualify for E.I.?

Can't wait to see all the teams in St. Louis again this year!

Greetings from Team 4481 The Rembrandts, The Netherlands

2014 NC Regional Engineering Inspiration winner
2013 NC Regional Rookie All Star winner

Championship EI is judged the same way as regional EI, by the pit judges. All teams in the division would be eligible. No inside info, just my best informed guess based on past history

[Woetie]

Originally Posted by rsisk

Championship EI is judged the same way as regional EI, by the pit judges. All teams in the division would be eligible. No inside info, just my best informed guess based on past history

Oke, well that seems fair. Thanks for explaining

[dag0620]

Originally Posted by rsisk

Championship EI is judged the same way as regional EI, by the pit judges. All teams in the division would be eligible. No inside info, just my best informed guess based on past history

Also there is a difference between the two awards. EI puts a lot more emphasis on STEM Outreach specifically, while Chairman's tends to look at both Outreach, Community Service and helping FIRST grow. So unless you restructure the awards across the board, you couldn't use EI winners as feeders for CCA.

[Siri]

Originally Posted by Woetie

Oke, well that seems fair. Thanks for explaining

In fact, there's at least one team who's actually taken home Worlds EI without a Regional one. Hawaiian Kids? I think.

FIRST: Awesome changes. Next request for awards - what is EI?