Georgia Districts

[Anupam Goli]

From an email I received today:

GeorgiaFIRST Robotics is in the process of gathering information to make a decision in regard to our structure of play for the 2016 season. We are asking for your input to help us make this decision. Please read the information below and click Going District Survey to complete the survey no later than April 20, 2015. Thank you in advance for your participation.

Current competition structure in Georgia: Regional Model
FRC teams pay: $5,000 for a veteran team and $6,000 for a rookie team
They receive: A kit-of-parts and entrance into one regional event (45 or 66 team event)
Additional regional events: $4,000
Seeding Matches per regional event (mandatory one event): 8-10 matches

Competition structure being considered in Georgia: District Model
FRC teams pay: $5,000 for a veteran team and $6,000 for a rookie team
The team receives: A kit-of-parts and entrance into two district events (30-40 team events average)
Additional district event (3rd ): $1,000 (Optional)
State Championship event: $4,000
Seeding Matches per team playing two district events (mandatory two events): 24 matches

• Two opportunities to compete and advance to the district (state) championship
• Opportunity to evolve robot design/fix technical issues
• Reduce travel time and cost/shorter event structure
• Better opportunity for family and friends to attend an event

District Events are usually two-day events and the district (state) championship is a three-day event.
Bag and tag implemented within both models.
No difference in types/categories of awards/medals.
All teams within our district qualifying to attend the FIRST World Championship would be from Georgia.
Number of teams qualifying to attend FIRST World Championships would be based on number of teams within the
state. (Example: Indiana currently has 49 FRC teams, 3 district events (30-34 team average), 1 state event (30
teams) and they qualified 10 Indiana teams to attend FIRST World Championship).

You are required to compete at two district events within our state to earn enough qualifying points to advance to the district (state) championship event. You are only allowed to play at a third event out-of-state or within state if capacity is available. A third play does not count in terms of qualifying points. Average cost of a third play is $1,000.

Thank you for taking the time to give us your thoughts. Watch for additional information as it becomes available at gafirst.org.

GeorgiaFIRST Robotics

FIRST's site lists 75 teams in Georgia. We'd likely have 4-5 district events and maybe a 40 team championship. I'd like to see us send 12-15 teams to championships with this new model.

Also I'm glad we are finally trying to ditch the 65+ team regional model. I was not at all happy with the number of matches we got, and this district model would fix all of those issues.

Thoughts?