Future First Championship News

[Jared Russell]

For 15 years I have been motivating myself and the teams I have been a part of with the goal of becoming the World Champion.

For 15 years I have been motivating myself and the teams I have been a part of with the thought that at the World Championship, we can look at the world's best robots up close, ask those teams any questions we want, and make friends from all across the world.

For 15 years I have been motivating myself and the teams I have been a part of with the idea that on Saturday of the World Championship, we will see the "final act" of that year's game. The immovable object vs. the unstoppable force (60 vs. 71 in 2002). The most dominating robot ever built (1114 in 2008) against the field of challengers. The gamebreaker (469 in 2010) against the brilliant minds who were trying to figure out how to beat it. The ultimate 3-ball autonomous vs. the ultimate goalie robot.

For 15 years I have been motivating myself and the teams I have been a part of with the goal of changing the culture by making FRC into an actual sport...the kind that non-participants will want to watch and follow (though for the first few years I admittedly didn't quite see it the same way I do now). Every year I cringe a little bit at that year's "twist" - FIRST has gotten Co-Opertition wrong more often than it has gotten it right - but there have always been moments where I think "wow, if every match was like that, this would be on ESPN".

I understand that growing FRC creates challenges that will necessitate change, but there are certainly other ways to do this than to shoot ourselves in the foot and eliminate one of the most universal elements of competition: A champion decided by a final title match(es).

It is clear with this decision that FIRST as an organization doesn't have quite the same set of goals that I do.

The ideals that are held by myself and by many of the longtime FRC mentors and volunteers whom I consider friends and colleagues are bigger than FIRST, and we will find (or make) another vehicle for them if we are forced to.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Jared Russell

For 15 years I have been motivating myself and the teams I have been a part of with the goal of becoming the World Champion.

For 15 years I have been motivating myself and the teams I have been a part of with the thought that at the World Championship, we can look at the world's best robots up close, ask those teams any questions we want, and make friends from all across the world.

For 15 years I have been motivating myself and the teams I have been a part of with the idea that on Saturday of the World Championship, we will see the "final act" of that year's game. The unstoppable object vs. the immovable force (60 vs. 71 in 2002). The most dominating robot ever built (1114 in 2008) against the field of challengers. The gamebreaker (469 in 2010) against the brilliant minds who were trying to figure out how to beat it. The ultimate 3-ball autonomous vs. the ultimate goalie robot.

For 15 years I have been motivating myself and the teams I have been a part of with the goal of changing the culture by making FRC into an actual sport...the kind that non-participants will want to watch and follow (though for the first few years I admittedly didn't quite see it the same way I do now). Every year I cringe a little bit at that year's "twist" - FIRST has gotten Co-Opertition wrong more often than it has gotten it right - but there have always been moments where I think "wow, if every match was like that, this would be on ESPN".

I understand that growing FRC creates challenges that will necessitate change, but there are certainly other ways to do this than to shoot ourselves in the foot and eliminate one of the most universal elements of competition: A champion decided by a final title match(es).

It is clear with this decision that FIRST as an organization doesn't have quite the same set of goals that I do.

The ideals that are held by myself and by many of the longtime FRC mentors and volunteers whom I consider friends and colleagues are bigger than FIRST, and we will find (or make) another vehicle for them if we are forced to.

I was too disheartened to write a post this long, and instead resorted to my usual snarky comments.

I'm glad you did, I agree with every word and it describes how I feel exactly.

[George1902]

FIRST, we need to have a quick chat about English.

You cannot have two "World Championships" because we only live on one World. What you have done is remove the concept of world champions.

To call it anything else is at best failing at English, and at worst lying and misrepresenting yourself.


[edit]Keeping this up since this was my honest gut reaction. I was corrected by Evan below.[/edit]

[ehochstein]

Originally Posted by George1902

FIRST, we need to have a quick chat about English.

You cannot have two "World Championships" because we only live on one World. What you have done is remove the concept of world champions.

To call it anything else is at best failing at English, and at worst lying and misrepresenting yourself.

Where does FIRST say "World Champions"?

[Boltman]

Originally Posted by ehochstein

Where does FIRST say "World Champions"?

Today, we are proud to announce that FIRST is about to change the game again, for the better! Beginning in 2017, we are expanding the FIRST Championship by bringing our Sport for the Mind™ to two FIRST Championship host cities.

In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.

Two champions and championships? That's nuts.

[Rangel(kf7fdb)]

Note this post is reflected on my thoughts and not my teams:
I joined 842 when we had already won the biggest award in FRC. I thought we were one of the greatest competitors in the world knowing this but come competition season, I soon realized that it wasn't the same case for our robots. Yes we work very hard to help our community and grow STEM but I guess I never really liked the fact that our robots were pretty under performing in comparison to the best in the world. Seeing awesome teams like 469 and 25 inspired me do everything I can to help make our robots more competitive. After all, 25 comes from a similar type of school as us and 469 I don't know the details of but their robot mechanisms seemed like something anyone could design and build if they really wanted to. So I started learning cad and studying the best teams from all around the world. I poured countless hours into these different designs and strategies, all for the hope that our team can finally make it to Einstein field and compete on it. It wasn't just me that seemed to have this drive either. Our entire team seemed to be more heavily geared at not just making robots that work or would hold their own, but to make robots that could score effectively. Mechanisms designed to try and be the best in the world. We are still quite a ways away but it's still the driving factor to be the best in the world. Splitting the world championships in half would be devastating to my morale at least because it makes the goal unachievable. A team is not "world" champions if they only competed with half of the teams in world. Like others have said, you might as well call every event a world championship if that's the case. I don't see why degrading what I believe is one of the best events in the world just to give every team half the championship experience is a good thing. I really hope this change is revoked because it would seriously lessen my intent to stay in FIRST. They are not the only robotics competition around that's intended to inspire kids. But I'd like them to be the best nevertheless.

[Loose Screw]

I'm very surprised they didn't follow FTC and create 4 super regionals. Usually FTC is testing grounds for FRC.

I personally don't like the way worlds is set up this year. Sure, with 600 teams there you can see the best from the entire world, but you can only compete with 1/8th of them. The alliances that move on to Einstein will be based on luck of who gets paired in the same division. Imagine if 1114 and 254 get paired in the same division, and the other power house teams get separated into the other 7 divisions. You could almost determine who will win worlds this year by which teams get paired in the same division.

If I were to change the way FRC is structured, I would create 4 super regionals, then 1 world championship with only 1 division. I would also try to change an element of the game to make it more competitive, then allow teams to keep their robots unbagged (or allow significant unbag time) so they can properly adjust to this change. Basically FIRST-run IRI.

If FIRST wants to keep the competition part of FRC, they should never remove defense completely again. I still think 2011 MSC Finals were some of the most exciting matches I've seen. The #1 alliance was defeated by the #8 alliance based on strategy alone. Einstein that year was disappointing compared to MSC.


TL;DR

Create 4 super-regionals so many teams get the "worlds" experience.

Reduce the total number of teams that compete at worlds so there's one division of the best teams of the world.

Keep defense in FRC. Strategy is more exciting than a showcase. If I wanted a showcase, I would watch reveal videos.

[The_ShamWOW88]

Originally Posted by ehochstein

Where does FIRST say "World Champions"?

When you win a "World Championship" you are generally considered the World Champions....right?

[George1902]

Originally Posted by ehochstein

Where does FIRST say "World Champions"?

They do not. Thank you. I have added to my post above.

[Navid Shafa]

Originally Posted by Jared Russell

The ideals that are held by myself and by many of the longtime FRC mentors and volunteers whom I consider friends and colleagues are bigger than FIRST, and we will find (or make) another vehicle for them if we are forced to.

Jared's post hits home. A perspective that's formed from his experience on two HOF teams.

Before making decisions this big, I would hope that FIRST would have polled some of the community. Whether it be HOF teams, mentors, volunteers, etc. If they had, I doubt they would have received much support, if any for this change.

I really did think this was a prank when people where describing the news to me this morning...

[Michael Blake]

IF they _really_ go through with this... I think some name changing is in order...

The FIRST National Semi-Finals

-and-

The IRI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP


--Michael Blake

[Kpchem]

Originally Posted by Jared Russell

...

The ideals that are held by myself and by many of the longtime FRC mentors and volunteers whom I consider friends and colleagues are bigger than FIRST, and we will find (or make) another vehicle for them if we are forced to.

As others have said, thank you for putting into words what I have been thinking since I read the news. I still find it hard to believe, and while I am almost positive this isn't the case, I hope this is a joke.

[Thad House]

Originally Posted by Jared Russell

For 15 years I have been motivating myself and the teams I have been a part of with the goal of becoming the World Champion.

For 15 years I have been motivating myself and the teams I have been a part of with the thought that at the World Championship, we can look at the world's best robots up close, ask those teams any questions we want, and make friends from all across the world.

For 15 years I have been motivating myself and the teams I have been a part of with the idea that on Saturday of the World Championship, we will see the "final act" of that year's game. The immovable object vs. the unstoppable force (60 vs. 71 in 2002). The most dominating robot ever built (1114 in 2008) against the field of challengers. The gamebreaker (469 in 2010) against the brilliant minds who were trying to figure out how to beat it. The ultimate 3-ball autonomous vs. the ultimate goalie robot.

For 15 years I have been motivating myself and the teams I have been a part of with the goal of changing the culture by making FRC into an actual sport...the kind that non-participants will want to watch and follow (though for the first few years I admittedly didn't quite see it the same way I do now). Every year I cringe a little bit at that year's "twist" - FIRST has gotten Co-Opertition wrong more often than it has gotten it right - but there have always been moments where I think "wow, if every match was like that, this would be on ESPN".

I understand that growing FRC creates challenges that will necessitate change, but there are certainly other ways to do this than to shoot ourselves in the foot and eliminate one of the most universal elements of competition: A champion decided by a final title match(es).

It is clear with this decision that FIRST as an organization doesn't have quite the same set of goals that I do.

The ideals that are held by myself and by many of the longtime FRC mentors and volunteers whom I consider friends and colleagues are bigger than FIRST, and we will find (or make) another vehicle for them if we are forced to.

This will only be my 6th year in FRC, but this post really hits home for me.

I come from a region that has never even reached Einstein, and its one of the major goals many mentors from the PNW share. Being able to go to worlds, view all the INCREDIBLE robots, and see Einstein finals usually being the best matches played in FRC inspires us to push even harder. Only getting to see half the teams, and having to Einsteins is going to make the finals be basically the semi finals. The best of the best now will not happen in regular competition, which to me is basically unacceptable. Seeing the best of the best is what inspires me and my students to work harder each year to hit that goal.

[Madison]

For the sake of informing the discussion, the circles on this map represent a 750 mile radius drawn from each of the three cities. It's pretty clear that these areas encompass a majority of current FRC teams.

I chose 750 miles because that's the furthest I've ever driven without wanting to die. It's about a 12 hour drive.

[dodar]

Originally Posted by Madison

For the sake of informing the discussion, the circles on this map represent a 750 mile radius drawn from each of the three cities. It's pretty clear that these areas encompass a majority of current FRC teams.

I chose 750 miles because that's the furthest I've ever driven without wanting to die. It's about a 12 hour drive.

Kinda sad we arent even in those circles. lol