Edited title of thread.
This does seem like a good move in a constrained qualification environment now that we are back in a to one Championship. Overall thumbs up.
Unfortunately, this also means district teams have little to no incentive to travel to a regional. We have a few near us that are closer than the next District system we were hoping to visit in the near future. Minor loss.
Will be interested to see how this affects regionals on the cusp with district teams less incentivized to travel to them. Overall I think itâs a good decision though. I think this will also make inter-distrct play more appealing for teams.
As a district team who won a regional last year and was able to attend the World Championship, we very happy about this change. We still plan on attending a regional this year.
Really happy to see this change. District teams getting to play at regionals and their own closed system never sat right with me.
Now letâs also let Regional teams play at Districts for $500/$1000 for no qualification benefit 
Not sure how much I like the idea that districts would be open for $500/$1,000 to any team and if a district team wanted the same you need to pay thousands more. Will just drive-up demand in districts for open spots.
Could just lower the cost for both in a new ânon-qualifyingâ registration for districts and regionals.
I feel like this hurts regionals in helping fill them up more. NY had 5 events last year, and 7 in 2019 (and planned for 20).
Many of the spots were regional teams, while this will help teams get more regional play in the land locked NY, it also provides no incentives for district teams to attend regionals. Why pay 4k for a regional where you could only get 8-10 matched. When you can go from MAR to NE (or vice versa) and pay 1k for an event, and presumably less in lodging costs. (Assuming it a downstate event.)
If equity is the objective here, itâs a nice benefit that district teams have. $1k for a competitionâs worth of experience even without a chance for qualification is a pretty good deal.
I like too that it would help fill out district slots too, since out-of-district participation can be a nice fundraiser for districts.
Now if only everyone else in NY sat down and thought really hard about this question.
In other news, I am very, very honored to have ReCalc be listed as a part of the resources.
IOt would be interesting to see data, but I would have to think, most district teams attending and reaching finals of a regional are likely high performing and looking for a tune-up opportunity before the events that count. These teams have the resources to pay the entrance fee (5K), travel out of state (hundreds per person), take the additional time off (students and chaperones), etc. These are the top teams already. I have to believe most qualify through the normal district channels anyways.
Honestly does Team Rush 27 who deservedly qualifies at Pittsburg & MSC make a âwildcard spotâ for another Pittsburg Team or Michigan? Pittsburg makes sense.
You know well enough after how many years, it isnât very likelyđ.
You can also have situations like 2018 SBPLI 1
496 failed to qualify for Michigan champs and last minute jumped to LI for a last ditch chance at champs.
Alternating Current also didnât qualify for MAR champs and ran to LI for a chance.
The winning alliance was 2 district teams and an international team. (No shade on them just pointing out no one from NY got a bid)
They had the incentive to jump to the regional and pay the higher fees for a final chance at champs.
The Collin Fultz era seems to be off to a good start with its first two major changes!
This year, the only event that had any district teams in ny was tech valley. And in 2019 only 10 teams across all the events were a part of a district.
Even though only 5 teams came this year, that would put TVR to 36 teams, which is the normal amount for RPI. (But this event was also at a larger venue.)
This still does effect how event capacity goes.
The number of district teams can highly fluctuate depending on NY events and the surround districts land. (NY keeps having event double up weekends with FLR TVR or CNY)
CNY would have a low number of teams without districts.
had 1 listed for 2020 (but could of been more I forget the list before being cancelled.)
2019 had 4 while being the same time as FLR. (Without them it is a 27 team event.)
2018 had 5 teams. (Would be a 30 team event without.)
So district teams can play a big part of filling up events on the eastern portion of NY. (HVR, CNY, TVR) (also I know CNY shouldnât be considered eastern but shh.)
WOW.
Many thanks, Frank. 
Totally on-board with this.
The blog announcement was a huge step towards equity of both types of events. Your suggestion would complete that equity.
There are a lot of reasons to play in districts besides winning and qualifying for Champs. We would love to have an excuse to play in Michigan, Texas, MAR, etc. with the great teams in each of those regions.
To clarify, Alternating Current has opted not to attend FMA DCMP in favor of attending outside regionals on multiple occasions in the past. I do not believe they have ever signed up for a regional after learning of their qualification status for FMA DCMP. They only year theyâve attended DCMP was in 2012 (the first year of FMA districts), and theyâve passed on DCMP qualification on multiple occasions in which they had enough points. In the specific year youâre referencing (2018), Alternating Current didnât even attend a second FMA district qualifier event, and had planned on the Long Island Regional being their second event from the very beginning of the season.