[FRC Blog] FIRST Robotics Competition Registration Update

[Katie_UPS]

Originally Posted by Anupam Goli

Or maybe giving priority to local teams?

That particular system would give teams with no "local" regional a disadvantage, like teams where North Star and 10k Lakes in Minnesota are the closest regionals but still a few hours away, and there are more than enough closer teams to fill the slots.

[dodar]

Originally Posted by Katie_UPS

That particular system would give teams with no "local" regional a disadvantage, like teams where North Star and 10k Lakes in Minnesota are the closest regionals but still a few hours away, and there are more than enough closer teams to fill the slots.

You can designate a "home event" for everyone though.

[MARS_James]

Originally Posted by dodar

You can designate a "home event" for everyone though.

In this scenario can I pick my home event? Cause I may not want to attend the one geographically closest to me.

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by MARS_James

In this scenario can I pick my home event? Cause I may not want to attend the one geographically closest to me.

I think the intent is that teams that choose the event that is geographically closest to them have a preference or advantage over teams that decide they want to travel. After all, should a team from California that lives 5 minutes from an event not get into that event because a team from Florida wants to visit the west coast? Providing a benefit to those teams that choose the closest event to themselves helps to keep costs down across FIRST, especially when you consider that there are team's all over that don't have the funding to pay for buses and hotels.

[dodar]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

I think the intent is that teams that choose the event that is geographically closest to them have a preference or advantage over teams that decide they want to travel. After all, should a team from California that lives 5 minutes from an event not get into that event because a team from Florida wants to visit the west coast? Providing a benefit to those teams that choose the closest event to themselves helps to keep costs down across FIRST, especially when you consider that there are team's all over that don't have the funding to pay for buses and hotels.

That is only contingent on that California event being the 1st choice for both teams.

If the Cali team wants it as their #2 but the Florida has it as #1, Florida wins.
If the Cali team wants it as their #2 and so does the Florida team, first come/first serve.
If the Cali team has it as #1 and Florida has it as #1, Cali wins by "home event".
If the Cali team has it #1 and Florida has it as #2, see above.

[dodar]

Originally Posted by MARS_James

In this scenario can I pick my home event? Cause I may not want to attend the one geographically closest to me.

Sure, but I think it would still have to be geographically near. Like if 179 would rather have Orlando over South Florida; but not 179 would rather have Peachtree over South Florida.(RIP Peachtree Regional)

[MARS_James]

Originally Posted by dodar

Sure, but I think it would still have to be geographically near. Like if 179 would rather have Orlando over South Florida; but not 179 would rather have Peachtree over South Florida.(RIP Peachtree Regional)

You mean like 233 did in 2015

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

I think the intent is that teams that choose the event that is geographically closest to them have a preference or advantage over teams that decide they want to travel. After all, should a team from California that lives 5 minutes from an event not get into that event because a team from Florida wants to visit the west coast? Providing a benefit to those teams that choose the closest event to themselves helps to keep costs down across FIRST, especially when you consider that there are team's all over that don't have the funding to pay for buses and hotels.

There is more to it then just being geographically close, for example Florida has two regionals this year Week 1 and Week 2, unfortunately as of this moment we may not be able to attend either due to scheduling conflicts with our school(s), so creating a home event system would mean we would either
A) Be forced to sign up for an event and have no students at it till midday Friday
or
B) Have to hope that in a weighted lottery system we get lucky.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by Tyler Olds

I'm not in favor of those (if any) who would use a bot but part of that blame lies upon the current system that is in place of first come/first serve .

I mean, I've been a big fan of first come first serve because we get to pick based on priorities we set instead of whatever priorities FIRST would hypothetically give us to pick from. If I'm trying to avoid seeing Triple Helix at an event, I doubt FIRST will take that in to account when assigning us events.

I get the shift, but I'll miss it. This is why we can't have nice things.

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by Tyler Olds

I'm not in favor of those (if any) who would use a bot but part of that blame lies upon the current system that is in place of first come/first serve .

Unfortunately, FIRST isn't the only system burned by bots... just look at concert/sporting ticket sales! A report here in MN earlier this summer said that, of 10 recent concerts in the cities, over 20% of tickets were put up for resale within hours of the tickets first becoming available.

While first is changing the system (which is something I do support) next year, there really is nothing inherently wrong with a first come, first served system, and even with such a system it's relatively easy to stop bots - captcha, as Frank mentioned, would basically put an end to it for FIRST registration, and they can set up a system to lockout teams that are found to be using a bot by running statistics on page requests.

If this issue really lies with the system, then the system can be fixed without replacing it. Replacing it with a new system isn't because a few teams are using bots... it's because a new system can better serve the community with fair and easy access to registering for their events.

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by Katie_UPS

That particular system would give teams with no "local" regional a disadvantage, like teams where North Star and 10k Lakes in Minnesota are the closest regionals but still a few hours away, and there are more than enough closer teams to fill the slots.

That's easily solvable by determining which event is a team's "local" regional ahead of time. The simplest way would be to determine which event is closest to each team and call that local. If, at that point, you have more teams than spots for that event, spots could be assigned randomly for every team that hadn't opted to try for a different event instead. The unlucky teams would then have to go to their second choice.

[Andy Brockway]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

That's easily solvable by determining which event is a team's "local" regional ahead of time. The simplest way would be to determine which event is closest to each team and call that local. If, at that point, you have more teams than spots for that event, spots could be assigned randomly for every team that hadn't opted to try for a different event instead. The unlucky teams would then have to go to their second choice.

Back before we became a district, our team liked to travel to our events. Being forced into a local event is not something I would have looked forward too. We enjoyed playing in Trenton, Philadelphia, Rochester, Manchester, Worcester instead of always going to Hartford.

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by Andy Brockway

Back before we became a district, our team liked to travel to our events. Being forced into a local event is not something I would have looked forward too. We enjoyed playing in Trenton, Philadelphia, Rochester, Manchester, Worcester instead of always going to Hartford.

that hadn't opted to try for a different event instead. Teams should always have a choice.

[Bob Steele]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

That's easily solvable by determining which event is a team's "local" regional ahead of time. The simplest way would be to determine which event is closest to each team and call that local. If, at that point, you have more teams than spots for that event, spots could be assigned randomly for every team that hadn't opted to try for a different event instead. The unlucky teams would then have to go to their second choice.

We moved to this system in PNW District last year. In the first round of signups a team could wither "opt out" of their local event or register for their local "home" event. Opt out would mean that you wait until the 2nd round and you get 2 choices when it opens up. (Again this is District only)

Due to the wonky way home events were chosen (by FIRST), the event we were listed as "home" for us was actually further away from us than the one we wanted to compete at. We opted out and then signed up for the closer event the 2nd registration. (FIRST chose home events based on zip codes or something and not by actual distance.... they would not change it when we requested it before registration)

It worked out for us... it simply gives a team the best chance at the district event that is closest to them. They don't have to take it. In this way, a team is never frozen out of the local district event.

[SoftwareBug2.0]

Originally Posted by Bob Steele

We moved to this system in PNW District last year. In the first round of signups a team could wither "opt out" of their local event or register for their local "home" event. Opt out would mean that you wait until the 2nd round and you get 2 choices when it opens up. (Again this is District only)

Due to the wonky way home events were chosen (by FIRST), the event we were listed as "home" for us was actually further away from us than the one we wanted to compete at. We opted out and then signed up for the closer event the 2nd registration. (FIRST chose home events based on zip codes or something and not by actual distance.... they would not change it when we requested it before registration)

It worked out for us... it simply gives a team the best chance at the district event that is closest to them. They don't have to take it. In this way, a team is never frozen out of the local district event.

We've also found the way things work to be curious from time to time. For example, before the home event system we asked if we could be guaranteed entry to the event that we host. The answer was not "no", it was "no because our IT department wouldn't be able to do that". That's a stupid response because they could always just adjust the number of spots held back with no special coding involved. A flat "no" would at least be honest.

Another curious thing is that the Alaskan team's home event is Wilsonville. While we'd love to see them in Wilsonville, it's about as far away from them as you can get without leaving the district. And I've heard a rumor that they've already made arrangements to stay in Seattle for a couple of weeks to compete, so if they choose to opt out it should not be a surprise to anyone.

[bobbysq]

Something interesting to note, 3 teams have somehow been signed up for events already.

https://www.thebluealliance.com/team/6319
https://www.thebluealliance.com/team/6320
https://www.thebluealliance.com/team/6321

I assume these are just for testing, but if you look on the firstinspires team list, a few rookie team numbers have been handed out as well.