Suggestions for Qualifications

[Chris Hibner]

I didn't want to post this in the other thread since it has become more of a rant-fest than constructive suggestions.

Anyway, here are my thoughts:

1. Using a previous year's results to give automatic bids to Nationals is fine. This occurs in many other competitions. For example, if you win a PGA tour event, you are automatically given your tour card and a spot in the US Open for the next year (you don't have to go through qualification). In NASCAR, past champions get "provisional" starting positions in races.

2. Qualification points should not be given for this year's nationals. As stated by Patrick in the other thread, this gives an unfair advantage to even numbered teams for years to come (notice that I say this and I am on an even numbered team). I don't have a problem with the national champion team getting an automatic bid since you should always have the opportunity to defend your championship.

3. Qualification points should somehow be normalized to the number of regionals that a team attends. I hardly think it's fair that Team A goes to 4 regionals, becomes a finalist at one of the regionals, and wins two Control Awards and qualifies for nationals; while Team B goes to one regional, is Regional Finalist, and wins one Control Award and doesn't qualify. In essense, if you don't win the regional, you can't go to nationals. If the points aren't normalized, FIRST gives the message of, "the more money you give us, the easier we'll make it for you to qualify for nationals."

4. Giving exemptions to the original teams is silly. This exemption must go.

5. Qualification points should be normalized for the size of the field at a regional. It is pretty obvious that the chances of winning the regional or winning a technical award are much better at a regional with 30 teams than if the regional had 60 teams. Perhaps the points given out at the 60 team regional should be double that given at the 30 team regional. If you don't like giving the winner 6 pts (instead of 3), then at least give points down to the semi-finalists or something. Just make sure that somehow twice the points are available.

6. Automatic bids should perhaps be passed down. That is, if a team already has an automatic bid for Nationals and they win an award, perhaps the automatic bid should be passed down to the next highest finisher without an automatic bid. For example, let's say that Team 45 wins the Leadership in Control Award at a regional, but they are already automatically in for the nationals. Then Team 45 should keep their award, but pass the automatic bid on to the team that finished 2nd for the Control Award. The judges would then have to not only pick a winner, but make a top-5 or top-10 list. The same could be done for the winners of the regionals, in that the automatic bid could be passed on to the finalists.

#6 would solve the problem that Andy B. mentioned in the other thread in that they would feel bad for winning since it would take away another team's chance to go to Nationals. If the bid was passed on, they wouldn't feel bad for winning.

Anyway, if I have any more thoughts, I'll post them at that time.

-Chris