What does the Chairman’s Award have to do with a robot contest?

[Denman]

I see a problem with them making the chairmans award regional, it makes it not as nearly as much prestigious as it was. We used to believe that winning the chairmans award would be much better than the actual competition, but if its now spread out accross however many regionals there are, it just doesn't make it as wanted as before.
We have spent a lot of time this year trying to make a decent "portfolio" for it and have held days with things like robot wars people in and various other bits.

[Aignam]

The Chairman's Award is given out regionally, then the regional winners are again judged at nationals to determine a National Chairman's Award winner, making it just as prestigious, if not more prestigious, as ever.

[Redhead Jokes]

Originally Posted by Denman

I see a problem with them making the chairmans award regional, it makes it not as nearly as much prestigious as it was. We used to believe that winning the chairmans award would be much better than the actual competition, but if its now spread out accross however many regionals there are, it just doesn't make it as wanted as before.

*rhetorical* Not as wanted? IMO the point is wanting chairman like behavior spread out across many regionals, and that there are so many teams out there, winning regionally helps narrow the field at nationals.