Event Preferencing - How'd we do in Round 1?

Competition Regional Competitions
41

I can do that for the SoCal teams, actually.

San Diego: 1538, 3128, 4984, 5025, 5474, 6515, 9730. At least, that’s the home event for most of those teams, and I would expect them to try to get in there first. 7 teams. I’d probably split that group evenly between SD and OC regional waitlists (OC being the second-closest event, and 3 weeks earlier).

LA, OC, and AVR are close enough to somewhat share a team pool. 17 teams across 3 events, but I’d be willing to bet that it’s not an even spread. MOST of these teams call LA Regional home; a few are closer to OC. With the timing spreads being what they are, most likely they could have picked any one of the three. I’d say probably 3 teams from this group on the OC waitlist, 2-3 on the AVR, and the rest on L.A. at least at a first guess.
294, 597, 599, 696, 702, 968, 980, 1197 (L.A. waitlist, known), 1515, 1661, 1759, 1836, 3473, 4322, 4619, 6220, 6658

SoCal is actually an interesting exercise in guessing the odds of getting in, as well–none of the 6 events there changed venues. So, if we look at last year’s number of teams, and this year’s Round 1 capacity, we can guess waitlist odds for that event for teams currently on that waitlist!

San Diego: 20 slots held, estimated 3-6 on the waitlist.
OC: 18 slots held, estimated 3-6 on the waitlist.
AVR: 20 slots held, estimated 3-6 waitlist.
LA: 20 slots held, estimated 10 waitlist.

In other words, I would expect MOST of those teams from SoCal to get in before Round 2, without difficulty. I would also expect Round 2 to be waitlist-only for those events…

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42

Venue at Vegas is amazing, completely understandable why Tide would go again.

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43

I know 4619 is on OC waitlist. And I know 6220 has only ever competed at OC.

Historically of those listed, 702, 599, 1836, 980 compete at LAR every year which I presume is their first pick

Edit: 3473 confirmed they are on OC waitlist

44

1759 is most likely LA waitlist, that’s the only event they’ve ever done as I recall.

46

A waitlisted team I know contacted RD and was told they’re getting an invitation next week because they are a local team to the waitlisted event.

In the past all waitlist related emails were responded to with :person_shrugging:. So I think the extra reserved spots is working out

47

Looks like you got into Greater KC, which is an event we have also greatly enjoyed in the past. The kids voted against it this year though, because they didn’t like the abbreviated schedule.

Looks like there are still spots available in the Iowa Regional if you’re doing multiple comps.

48

I’m not sure we can pull off two week 5 regionals at the same time lol.

49

Heh, my bad.

50

It’s too bad about overlap this year for week 4 & 5. We couldn’t make Iowa work without traveling twice or back-to-back.

I know traveling twice is the norm for you but we try to make the Heartland or GKC if we can to save some cost for hotels.

Maybe getting the short straw this round will help get us into Heartland. There are a couple reasons we prefer it, similar to you with GKC this year. The biggest being some students have other activities that weekend but the shorter schedule and greater distance were considered.

51

We made up patterns after starting at a dot plot of points scored in matches

52

3015 is excited to be headed to Montreal for the first time Week 2!

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53

Time to get the team a DuoLingo subscription to brush up on your French!

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54

Trucking through the Tug Hill Plateau in prime snowfall season does not sound like a fun trip at all.

55

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We only have one option and we got in.

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56

Seems like some of the waitlist has been cleared, at least with the double DECCer/ minnesota teams I checked.

Most seem unresolved still.

57

That’s an impressive work.
I have no idea why my team 9692 is in wait-list for Long Island regional.
Other team from my country got registered in same event.

Any idea for when this wait-list will probably get cleared?

58

The reason they’re in and you aren’t comes down to luck. Their pick was well before yours, and your pick was late enough that all the open spots were full. Pick order is random.

As far as when you might come off the waitlist, it’s going to depend on whether all the local teams that are also on the waitlist come off, or not. If the local teams fill the event up, assume you’ll be asked to find a different event. If there’s room, you’ll come off the waitlist.

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59

Long Island used to have 2 back-to-back events, and due to a loss in sponsorship money had to cut back to one event in the last few years. This created an increased pressure from local teams trying to find a local regional to attend.

Add to this that NY is increasing “land-locked” and surrounded almost entirely by districts we cannot play in, pressure for local teams rises.

Even more to add, the NYC regional has largely been full, and not the easiest to get into as they are also trying to serve local teams, and now teams coming from Long Island. Additionally, there are a significant number of local teams for which it is the NYC regional or nothing.

The next-closest regional, Hudson Valley, restarted last year in hopes to reduce some of the pressure on the Long Island / NYC regionals, but as we return to pre-pandemic team counts and play counts, NYS is still down 1 regional (Central NY) overall. Upstate teams looking for a second play are now looking at WOW or Canada as options as space continues to be constrained.

I know that the NYC-area is attractive for international teams for a host of reasons, however, the reality is, if teams are not getting in to events off the lottery, it is going to be increasingly difficult for international teams to get in off the waitlist if it means a local team can’t play.

The possible solutions to this problem for NY teams are simple to say, but exceptionally hard to implement:

  • NYS becomes a district and we effectively shut out international teams entirely
  • We continue to add capacity geographically close to where it is needed with additional regionals

For international teams looking for an event in the US, I don’t see it getting any easier in the future. Flexibility will be needed through registration with the ability to pivot to seemingly random areas/regionals throughout the country.

In the long term I think HQ needs to really look at how we “reserve” capacity, ensure play for local teams, perhaps disincentivise the “1st pick travel, 2nd pick local off the waitlist” strategy, and find a workable long-term solution for international travel teams.

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60

See you there! (and maybe even this weekend in the same region as well!) We also got Central MO, which was our first pick due to scheduling considerations. I think we had St. Louis/Arkansas down as 2nd/3rd. We always try to do one travel event and one local event and put one early-season and the other late-season.

61

Yes, looks like both teams will be at Cow Town Throw Down this weekend, which is always a favorite of ours.