The Teaser
https://www.firstinspires.org/sites/default/files/uploadedImages/Robotics_Programs/FRC/bender.gif
Bender’s stoked for the teaser. And rightly so.A teaser for the 2018 FIRST Robotics Competition, you shall have. If things go as planned, we’ll be releasing it broadly at 8 PM Eastern Time on Thursday, September 14th, on YouTube, FaceBook, and Twitter, at a minimum. If things don’t go as planned, you will hear about it. Then we’ll hear about it.
I want to say more about the teaser, but I shouldn’t. OK, just this one thing – it’s different from the teasers that have come before.
Start making those teaser release party plans now!
Event Preferences
ICYM it, we’re moving to a preference system for event assignment. We have an FAQ that attempts to address most questions that folks have asked about it. One additional question and answer has been added to the list today.
The most frequent concern people have expressed is not being able to get into an event they truly need to attend, for financial or other reasons. We understand this concern. As we say in the FAQ, if you can only go to one event, you should put only that event on your preference list. This action guarantees you will at least be waitlisted for that event. Note that this is the same thing that would have happened under the old system if the event was filled by the time you attempted to register for that event. If you are waitlisted, just as before, this does mean there will be a delay in getting your final assignment, as local management – the Regional Director or District Managers – work through the list of teams on the waitlist. My experience is that local management gives very strong preference to local teams when it comes to the waitlist. And as we also say in the FAQ, we sometimes go to extreme lengths to fit in teams that must attend a specific event.
While we have some experience with a preference system like this, as we use it for FIRST Choice, using it for event assignment is uncharted territory. We know this creates uncertainty. We will be doing our best over the coming weeks to explain exactly how the system will work, and as with all new systems, we expect the system to evolve as we learn how it functions in the real world.
FIRST Championship Non-Home Location Attendance
Is it too early to be talking about the FIRST Championship? Maybe, but I did want to get out a little information.
Last year, you may remember we had a mechanism that allowed for Championship qualified teams on their non-home Championship waitlist to get offered slots to that non-home event under certain circumstances. Those circumstances arose for 16 teams last season, and all of those were offered slots at their non-home Championship, but only four teams took us up on those offers. Because this program benefitted so few teams, but added significant complexity to the system, we will not be offering this option for the 2018 Championship.
I’m sure this decision will be disappointing to some, and I’m sorry about that, but I do believe it’s in the best interest of FRC overall.
Frank
For better or for worse, 2018 will have a theme.
I can’t resist.
#WaterGameConfirmed
I’m sorry.
FIRST: “Teams didn’t switch because they didn’t want to, not because of our clunky system.”
The instant a team qualifies, they should be able to swap with a willing team qualified at the other championship. Why make them wait to be offered a slot off the waitlist?
In 2019, the Houston championship is on Easter weekend.
I’m sure we’re not the only ones with this problem because I’ve discussed with mentors of other Catholic school-based teams, but if we qualify in 2019 we will not be able to attend Houston no matter what.
Hopefully they will reinstate the championship swap for 2019.
Not addressing volunteer issues, houston on easter weekend, getting rid of the championship switch…
I think Bender has a catch phrase for this…
He does. “I’m 40% dolomite!”
i think “Bite my shiny metal @#@#$@#” works better in this situation, assuming Bender is FIRST.
The removal of the championship swap will definitely affect those teams going to north champs who also do Vex given Vex Worlds is the same weekend.
Based on the gif used for the teaser announcement, I predict that the game this year will involve a robot in some way.:]
Considering the teams that swapped last year… :eyeroll:
Have you ever seen FIRST move fast? You can’t honestly expect them to address some complaining on CD within a week of it happening.
Edit: (https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc/blog/more-on-volunteer-roles-even-though-you-didnt-ask)
In 2019… I think they have time to figure it out.
for all 4 teams that used it…
I found the 4 out of 16 offered that switched to be surprising.
148 and 3310 both switched that I know of (non-HOF).
However, there was 1 team that had expressed disappointment this past season that wanted to switch, but was told they couldn’t.
We were offered a chance to swap to STL on April 4th, 2017.
We qualified for HOU on March 12th, 2017.
As you can see, we were already 3+ weeks deep into flight, hotel, and other logistics. Swapping championships that close to the event date was not financially feasible for us.
-Mike
I have insider information from FIRST and I can say with 100% certainty that this year will be a robot game #RobotGameConfirmed2018
I feel bad for the Michigan teams that won’t have a chance to play out-of-state officially for the next 3 years (unless they travel to a regional).
There is no easy way to do championship swaps now, which is when they would need to happen to be practical.
On the other side of the coin, Detroit area teams can now to commute to two districts and the FRC Championship (and possibly the FiM championship?) without having to spend a single cent on hotel rooms or charter busses.
This is definitely a nice advantage. They still will get to interact with students from across the globe if they attend champs, either competing or as spectators/volunteers.
I figure that MI teams have already transitioned into the district model where long travel is less inherent, so this may not be as much of a change. Getting to travel was a big sell when I joined FIRST and still is for our team. Last year, traveling 11 hours to Alabama was a good cultural experience for the students, as they met teams from across the South. Most kids in our area don’t even make these sorts of trips for family vacations, so it can be a big deal. I know the move away from regionals is coming and I know I will miss this part, even as I enjoy the lower cost and better competition.
“Last year, you may remember we had a mechanism that allowed for Championship qualified teams on their non-home Championship waitlist to get offered slots to that non-home event under certain circumstances. Those circumstances arose for 16 teams last season, and all of those were offered slots at their non-home Championship, but only four teams took us up on those offers. Because this program benefitted so few teams, but added significant complexity to the system, we will not be offering this option for the 2018 Championship.”
This upsets me for a number of reasons. First, it is quite obvious that only a few teams would benefit from this “mechanism”. The point of enabling this change option was, at least to some extent, to allow teams with a specific need for an exception to switch to the other championship. It should be pretty obvious that this system will only benefit the few teams that need an exception, but it’s pretty clear that they do need it. I won’t go on a rant about what past exceptions have been mostly cause I don’t know the details, but it seems pretty clear that teams would only pay extra, travel further, and leave their local friendly teams if they really did need to.
(Here comes a rant totally unique to my team and a few others across the world)
Tons of Jewish high schools across the world participate in a program called March of the Living. March of the Living is a program for Jewish high school students to experience the tragedy of the Holocaust in Poland on Holocaust remembrance day and then celebrate Israeli independence day in Israel. I have heard from students in grades above me that it is an extremely impactful experience, and almost every Senior at my and many other Jewish high schools plan on attending. While I have some issues with the 2champs divide, one great thing about it was that beyond allowing more teams to attend a championship, it allows more groups of students with conflicts to work with their teams to attending the other championship. Now that FIRST has removed team’s ability to switch championships, Seniors at Milken this year and beyond will have to choose between culminating their 4-6 years of robotics experience at a final world championship or participating in this amazing program to culminate their 4-6 years of Jewish learning in middle and high school.
Beyond this, registration for MOTL is in the next few months, and I can’t ask my teammates to skip out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the prospect of attending the championship. On the flip side of that, how can I ask my teammates to devote so much time and energy into a robot and season they already know they will never see and experience come to completion (of course yes it’s more than that, but I can’t imagine taking away that culminating last championship experience from any of my teammates, both current seniors and future seniors).
I will be reaching out to FIRST directly about this, but I hope that by sharing my desire to switch championships here I can further discussion about this decision and voice my strong push to re-enable teams to utilize this critical opportunity for the experience of FIRST teams and students.