FRC Blogged - Standard District Points Ranking System – More Info

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Posted on the FRC Blog, 11/7/13: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/blog-Standard-District-Points-Ranking-System%E2%80%93More-Info

Standard District Points Ranking System – More Info

**Blog Date: **Thursday, November 7, 2013 - 13:31

I’ve provided some clarifications and more information related to the FRC Standard District Points Ranking System below. In addition, the summary document has been updated. You may find the new version here.

Team Age

Team Age points are applied only once per season, not once per event.

If the new points system had been in place in 2013, Michigan would have had three Rookies (all Rookie All Star winners) at their Championship rather than the zero that qualified under the old system. Also, no additional second year teams, other than those already present, would have made the cutoff. As noted in the document describing the new system, the intent of awarding these points is to increase the chance that younger teams will make it to District Championships. We can’t predict the precise effect this will have in 2014, but the team members assembling this approach felt the points we are awarding will provide a reasonable boost to younger teams without unbalancing the system.

Tie Breakers

In determining advancement to the District Championship, tie breakers are applied using data from the first two district events the team attends chronologically. These are the same events considered in non-tie-breaking portion of the system. Third or later events are not considered.

In determining advancement to the *FIRST *Championship, tie breakers are applied using data from the first two district events the team attends chronologically, as well as data from the District Championship. With the exception of tie breakers related to Match Scores (tie breakers 7 to 9), Points earned at the District Championship in tie-breaking categories are multiplied by three to highlight the importance of performing well at the District Championship in earning advancement. The updated summary document expands and clarifies information on tie breakers.

FIRST Championship Slot Allocations for Districts

This topic is tangential to the points ranking system itself, but I did mention it in the points ranking system summary document, and it’s generated much interest, so I’d like to provide additional detail.

Historically, new Districts had been awarded a number of *FIRST *Championship slots equal to six times the number of Regionals from their geographic region that were eliminated during the District conversion. This approach is not sustainable, and raises questions of fairness when considering planned districts having Regionals of differing team capacities.

Our intent in the 2015 season is to move to a proportional representation system at the *FIRST *Championship, based on team counts. Districts will receive the percentage of available slots at the *FIRST *Championship, rounded up to the nearest whole slot, equal to the percentage of teams they have in their district compared to all of FRC in the current season. In calculating available slots at the *FIRST *Championship, pre-qualified teams will be excluded. As a reference point, you can see the list of pre-qualified teams for 2014 here: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/championship-eligibility-criteria . There are 27 pre-qualified teams in 2014, which means with our planned 400 teams at the *FIRST *Championship, we’ll have 373 available slots.

These allocated slots are guaranteed to the Districts. These slots will be made up of qualifying award winners from the District Championship (for example, the Chairman’s Award winners), along with any qualifying award winners among district teams who traveled to Regionals, plus the teams on the final District ranking list, as deep in the ranking list as the district needs to go to fill their allocation. If a District team earns a slot at the *FIRST *Championship, but is not able to attend for whatever reason, the top ranked team who has not yet been offered a slot is given the opportunity, and so on, until all slots are filled. As noted in the summary document, District teams earning *FIRST *Championship slots at Regionals do count against the District allocation. Even though a District team may earn their *FIRST *Championship slot at a Regional, they are still from the District and can be considered part of the District contingent to the Championship. Not counting these slots against the District allocation would allow District representation to exceed their fair share of available slots at the *FIRST *Championship. Also, it’s important to remember that while a District team can travel to a Regional to earn a slot, it’s not possible for a non-District team to earn a slot within the District system.

Pre-qualified teams from a District do not count against their slot allocation. Districts are able to send to the *FIRST *Championship the number of unique teams allocated to them using the proportional representation model, plus their unique pre-qualified teams. Unlike the allocated slots, however, slots for pre-qualified teams may not be backfilled. If a pre-qualified team from a District is not able to attend the *FIRST *Championship, it will not be replaced with another team from the District. A pre-qualified team slot is reserved for that specific team only, not the District from which that team comes.

We will be easing the full transition in 2015 to the proportional representation system by taking a modified approach in 2014. To eliminate uncertainty with the number of slots being awarded, we are using 2013 season team counts rather than current season (2014) counts. Also, to make this change less sudden for existing districts, and to make the allocation more closely match early discussions *FIRST *HQ had with new districts being formed, I am adding a single *FIRST *Championship slot for each District to the allocations that were determined mathematically from the 2013 team counts. As a practical matter, these additional slots will reduce by four the number of waitlist slots available at the *FIRST *Championship.

Final *FIRST *Championship allocations for Districts are shown in the table below. Please remember that any pre-qualified teams Districts have are added to this total, assuming the pre-qualified teams attend the event:

**District ----- [INDENT][/INDENT]2014 FIRST Championship Allocation
FiM --------------- [INDENT][/INDENT]32
MAR ---------------- [INDENT][/INDENT]18
NE --------------- [INDENT][/INDENT]24
PNW --------------- [INDENT][/INDENT]24

I’ll blog again soon.

Frank

Thanks for the great clarification, Frank! +1 to everyone involved.

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54 regionals x 6 qualifiers per regional = 324 unique slots.

32(FiM) + 18(MAR) + 24(NE) + 24(PNW) = 98

324 + 98 = 422

They are really banking on 22 slots being double dipped. 22 seems like a lot to hope they get taken twice.

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DD + teams unable to go to CMP for whatever reason

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There are 24 teams registered for champs currently. Unless I am mistaken these are all founding teams, HOF teams, and last year’s champs winners/EI/RAS.

16, 20, 45, 51, 67, 103, 111, 126, 148, 151, 175, 190, 191, 236, 254, 341, 359, 365, 610, 842, 1114, 1241, 1538, and 3478.

I would wager 80% of these teams earn a spot this year, so that’s 19 of 22 solved right there.

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There’s also the 27 pre-qualified teams, 24 of which are already registered for CMP. But plenty of qualified teams cannot or opt not to attend championship each year.

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Isn’t there also the wildcard system to keep in mind for regionals? That would make it even closer to having 422 teams going to champs.

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Is 22 really to much to hope for? With 162 spots being given to regional champions and wild cards. I would be willing to bet that of those 162 more than 22 will also win a Chairman’s Award, Engineering Inspiration, or Rookie All-Star. You also have to assume at least a few district teams will win spots at Regionals. You also have teams that earn a spot but can’t go.

Great Job Frank, thanks for always explaining the reasoning behind the decisions.

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For the 27 pre-qualified teams the wild card doesn’t have any affect the first time they win. If they qualify through any other method, they burn a spot. If they then qualify again, that can be wildcarded.’

For example, when 254 and 987 won SD last year, no wildcards were generated. When 254 later won San Jose, wildcards were generated.

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They will still pull from a wait list if there is one. I predict at least 22 teams will not be able to attend Worlds due to logistical or financial reasons

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Helpful update… thanks Frank & Co!

Glad they’re going with a proportional allocation… definitely the logical and fair way to go. I also like that the teams that qualified for CMP before the start of season to be in addition to the calculated proportional allocation.

It mentions in the point system document under awards that the DCMP Chairmans’, EI, and RAS winners auto-qualify to CMP. It doesn’t mention if DCMP Winners also get an auto-qualify to CMP. Also doesn’t mention how many Chairmans’, EI, and RAS winners there are… I believe at MSC last year there were 3, 1, and 1 (respectively). Does anyone know more about if this element will be “regulated” or if regions are going to have to decide for themselves?

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You’re missing 23, who is not competing in 2014 but could do so in the future.

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It’s pretty reliable to say that around 85% of all offered slots for CMP will be accepted, based on recent history (last couple of years), so you will likely see at least 25+ teams move off the waitlist.

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I only listed the teams that are already registered for champs.

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District 2014 FIRST Championship Allocation
FiM 32
MAR 18
NE 24
PNW 24

32 slots allocated to Michigan? Heck, when you get to States, you’re half-way to Champs (assuming it will stay at 64 teams at the event).

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Hope this is addressed soon. Pretty disappointing to those on the outside looking in.

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Keep in mind getting into MSC itself with upwards of 260 michigan teams is very hard. And almost all of the teams getting into champs by qualifying at MSC generally deserve to be there.

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I see your point. However going in to a competition (especially a state championship) knowing that there is a 50% turnover of teams going to STL leaves a pretty sour taste in my mouth. Maybe I’ll get used to it.

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Doesn’t it seem reasonable that it should be based on total district size?

It seems more unfair to me if a district sends 2x as many teams %wise.

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Oh no, don’t worry, I understand that MI is very dense with teams. Maybe the answer lies in sending more teams to MSC. :o

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So you’d rather dilute the talent pool? Since MSC qualification is based on skill, increasing the amount of spots available only allows more less competitive teams in, which are the teams that wouldn’t be qualifying for Worlds anyway.

Adding more teams to MSC stills send the same top teams, but dilutes one of the most talent rich events.