New FIRST Word: MEGA-REGIONALs

[Rich Wong]

New FIRST Word: MEGA-REGIONALS

Definition:
MEGA-REGIONALS (ME-GA RE-GION-AL-S; or just say BIG)- Regional competitions that are BIGGER then existing regionals with multiple playing fields. Most likely choosen in regions with high concentration of FIRST Teams. Locations TBD. They are planned for 2006.

(this soooooooo exciting I almost **** my pants)

[Yan Wang]

Soo.... kinda like the Canadian Regional this year, eh?

[Ken Leung]

hmm... could this be the next step for qualification for championship events? makes me wonder...

-Ken Leung who seems to have lots of questions in his head lately

[geo]

Originally posted by monsieurcoffee
Soo.... kinda like the Canadian Regional this year, eh?

HAHAHA, we got two playing fields and a huge Hokey arena as pit area.

[IMDWalrus]

Originally posted by Rich Wong
Definition:
MEGA-REGIONALS (ME-GA RE-GION-AL-S; or just say BIG)- Regional competitions that are BIGGER then existing regionals with multiple playing fields. Most likely choosen in regions with high concentration of FIRST Teams. Locations TBD. They are planned for 2006.

One question: where did you hear this word? I might have missed it, but I don't remember FIRST saying anything about "mega-regionals" publicly.

[The Lucas]

Originally posted by IMDWalrus
One question: where did you hear this word? I might have missed it, but I don't remember FIRST saying anything about "mega-regionals" publicly.

Thats why this is in the Rumor Mill. If it was posted on the FIRST site it wouldn't be a rumor now would it. Until a couple weeks ago the new robot controller was just a rumor started mid season last year (something Lavery said at one of the comps started it I think).

The first buzz I heard about MEGA Regionals was at the Chesapeake Bay Regional when many people noticed the Naval Academy could easily hold two fields and over a hundred teams. Unfortunately teams would no longer be able to play hackey sack in between pits Also notice the J&J Regional changed to a bigger venue. It appears these MEGA Regionals are already falling into place. Since the Championship Event can no longer accommodate all the teams that want to go, open-invitation MEGA Regionals make sense.

[IMDWalrus]

Stupid me for going through the portal and not noticing the forum it was posted in...

I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens in 2006...

[John JediMaster]

This could be interesting, but what could the implicatons be? Also would this mean less overall regionals? Could this mean multiple regionals being combined for one of these mega-regionals? Though the idea is very interesting.

[Rich Wong]

Originally posted by The Lucas
Thats why this is in the Rumor Mill. If it was posted on the FIRST site it wouldn't be a rumor now would it. Until a couple weeks ago the new robot controller was just a rumor started mid season last year (something Lavery said at one of the comps started it I think).

The first buzz I heard about MEGA Regionals was at the Chesapeake Bay Regional when many people noticed the Naval Academy could easily hold two fields and over a hundred teams. Unfortunately teams would no longer be able to play hackey sack in between pits Also notice the J&J Regional changed to a bigger venue. It appears these MEGA Regionals are already falling into place. Since the Championship Event can no longer accommodate all the teams that want to go, open-invitation MEGA Regionals make sense.

YA... what he said!

[Joe Matt]

Am I the only one who thinks that this whole Mega-Regional idea for qualifications sounds stupid? MANY good teams cannot go to more than one regional, let alone nats. So, how would you guys like to have only the big-rich macho teams at Nationals?

Plus, why am I calling it Nationals? Because it's NATIONALS, where every team can go, not Championship, that sounds more like only the good teams can go.

*end rant*

[Wayne C.]

Originally posted by The Lucas
Thats why this is in the Rumor Mill. If it was posted on the FIRST site it wouldn't be a rumor now would it. Until a couple weeks ago the new robot controller was just a rumor started mid season last year (something Lavery said at one of the comps started it I think).

The first buzz I heard about MEGA Regionals was at the Chesapeake Bay Regional when many people noticed the Naval Academy could easily hold two fields and over a hundred teams. Unfortunately teams would no longer be able to play hackey sack in between pits Also notice the J&J Regional changed to a bigger venue. It appears these MEGA Regionals are already falling into place. Since the Championship Event can no longer accommodate all the teams that want to go, open-invitation MEGA Regionals make sense.

Rumor Mill aside.....This might be a nice idea but so far I have not heard any proclamation from FIRST that a tiered system or Megaregionals were being planned.
Our rationale behind expanding NJ was to accomodate many more NJ teams (50 x05) and allow a more widespread recruitment of NJ teams via the RINOS program. There will be quite a few new ones in the regional this year and next.
I have heard that by improving the regionals it might take some of the emphasis on all teams attending the Nats. Eventually, if FIRST continues to think in the small numbers they do now, there will be very limited space at Nats to attend due to dozens of Regional contributors being limited to a few teams each. I can see that day when Nats are based on that season's qualification.

If somebody else heard different I would like to know. The idea of going through tiers over many weeks to qualify for nats is undesirable and scary. The expense would be huge and the need to remove students from class even longer would be prohibitive.

WC

[Greg Ross]

Originally posted by geo
HAHAHA, we got two playing fields and a huge Hokey arena as pit area.

(from Dictionary.com)
hok·ey adj. Slang hok·i·er, hok·i·est [list=1][*]Mawkishly sentimental; corny.[*]Noticeably contrived; artificial.[/list=1]
I think you meant hockey.

Originally posted by JosephM
Am I the only one who thinks that this whole Mega-Regional idea for qualifications sounds stupid? MANY good teams cannot go to more than one regional, let alone nats. So, how would you guys like to have only the big-rich macho teams at Nationals?

Plus, why am I calling it Nationals? Because it's NATIONALS, where every team can go, not Championship, that sounds more like only the good teams can go.

*end rant*

"Americans go to Nationals, everyone else goes to The Championships." Steve W. Team 188 (Im pretty sure it was him at WMR 2003, if not it was a member of 188)

Its not Nationals anymore, technically it hasn't been "Nationals" since 1998 when the first Canadian team joined in. It's now an International Competition. Thats how it is. Deal with it.
-------------

Originally posted by gwross
(from Dictionary.com)
hok·ey adj. Slang hok·i·er, hok·i·est [list=1][*]Mawkishly sentimental; corny.[*]Noticeably contrived; artificial.[/list=1]
I think you meant hockey.

Not necessarily, for some reason I've seen Canadian publications spell it "Hokey" Aparently "Hokey" is the true spelling, and it eventually evolved into "Hockey"

[Joe Matt]

Originally posted by D.J. Fluck
"Americans go to Nationals, everyone else goes to The Championships." Steve W. Team 188 (Im pretty sure it was him at WMR 2003, if not it was a member of 188)

Its not Nationals anymore, technically it hasn't been "Nationals" since 1998 when the first Canadian team joined in. It's now an International Competition. Thats how it is. Deal with it.

I just have an objection that people think that it should be the best since it's the Championship, but it was originally the Nats. See what I'm saying? Ok.

[Steve W]

I believe they changed it to Championship because of international teams. The purpose behind the event is the same as day one. A chance to celebrate winners. I still believe that every competitor in FIRST is a winner.