To add some numerics to this subject: Attached is a scatterplot of FRC all the events played so far this year.
The two District Championships outperform all of the standard events by a large margin on both average team performance and competitive balance.
If the past is any guide, http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2711, the CMP divisions will fall somewhere in the gap between the MAR event and best of the regular events (Bedford, Pine Tree).
The IRI, as always, will surpass everything that comes before it.
Pre_CMP 2013 FRC Event Scatterplot.pdf (187 KB)
Pre_CMP 2013 FRC Event Scatterplot.pdf (187 KB)
And the data is in! 
I have watched many events through webcast this year, and when I was watching the Michigan state championship, I was in the library of my school, and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, I even cheered a few times until I got yelled at, what an awesome event
Could you elaborate on what Signal / Noise Ratio is in this context, and how it is calculated?
To be fair, I think the District championships are more closely related to IRI than regionals. They just use a scoring system to pick which teams are worthy to attend.
The week before I was in Chicago and there were three teams who were not ready to compete from the get go because their robots were illegal (last years specs). In fact there were several teams that struggled to make it to the field on a consistent basis for some reason or another that oft times had nothing to do with the robot. There were no such robots at either district final. Those type of teams were weeded out during the earlier weeks.
Signal to Noise Ratio is used a lot in engineering methods were physical phenomena are measured for quality. It is used in communications, electonics and recently is used a lot in quality methods to measure the quality of processes and components. SNR (or S/N) is a logarithmic value measured in dB.
It turns out that methods for measuring quality in the world of Engineering and Manufacturing can be easily applied to sports. Another great opportunity for crossover learning in the world of STEM/FRC.
SNR give you a ratio of variabliy compared to the level of the signal you are measuring. In this case I am using Average Event OPR as the measurment of interest. The higher the SNR value, the more “competatively balanced” the event is, meaning that the distribution of the capability of teams is tighter than at an event with a lower SNR value.
Example, Compare Central Valley with Alamo. Both have nearly identical average OPR numbers for the event, (15.4, 15.2), however the distribution of OPRs for the teams at Alamo was much broader than at Central Valley.
What this a higher SNR means is that the event not likely as dominated by a few good teams, but instead was much more balanced competitively.
On these scatter graphs, Higher is means better overall event scoring ability, points to the right have better competitive balance.
I plan to write a paper on this, if I can ever find the time.
I use this same method to measure many factors in FRC competitive analysis, from the quality of individual teams, team quality growth over time, game design comparisons, and more. Fun with math.
The point of IRI is to see the most instense competition of the year, thats why you have to be crazy good to get in…
So what is it, the standard deviation of OPR in dB or something similar?
S/N = 10 * Log ( Average^2 / StdDev^2 )
This is a standard formula from Signal Processing and related fields.
Events with tighter grouping will have a higher SNR.
Images below depict this graphically.
The great thing about IRI is that you lack the exclusivity of MAR or MSC - that is, you have the best MAR and Michigan teams plus the rest of the best from the rest of the world. It’s absolutely no contest that IRI is far more competitive than either of the regional championships. With that said, comparison between Divisional competition and Einstein vs. MAR or MSC eliminations can certainly fluctuate. Take, for example, the eliminations in 2011. I can’t speak to the rest of the divisions, but eliminations on Galileo were fairly intense, but the #2 alliance of 254, 111, and 973 won handily, and were hardly challenged on Einstein. Except for one match in the Galileo finals, there were no upsets and very few close matches. In that year, at least, I would consider MSC’s elims to be far more exciting (Whenever a #8 seed alliance can upset a #1 alliance like 217, 469, and 201 can be upset, you know the event must be deep). That said, neither events held a candle to the IRI.
The part I’m surprised by is that MSC is SO much more competitive than MAR.
IRI is insane. You need to be there to see it.
I wonder if this has anything to do with how many MAR teams turned down their MAR Championship invitation, as they qualified at a regional? I don’t think MSC had any teams turn down that invitation.
Quick note:
A team from the Upper Peninsula (at least a 10 hour drive) found out on Tuesday that they qualified for MSC. They were able to pay and organize in time to be there Thursday morning. They passed inspection quickly. I haven’t had time to look up how they did, but I was so excited that they made the effort to come down for the event. What an awesome experience for their team!
IRI, no doubt.
Unfortunately Team 216 had to turn down the invitation to states. Our robots were still making their way through customs after competing as a finalist at the Western Canada Regional in Alberta. If there was any way for us to have attended, we would have!! So sad that we had to miss this crazy Championship! 
857 ranked 56th, with a 4-8-0 record. It’s about a 9 hour drive to MSC for them, and they probably encountered at least a little snow somewhere along the way (either on the way there or on the return trip).
I remember when we competed at Waterloo this year and seeing the high scores, worlds highest average winning score, and how competitive almost every team was. Watching MSC blew that out of the water. MSC was just insane. I don’t see Champs Quals being higher but elims will be probably 150-175 Average Winning Score.
IRI is IRI. That is all.
It doesn’t seem that MSC has a necessarily tighter grouping, just that it’s mean shifted up by about 20. That’s something I’d expect when you’ve created a performance filter on teams.
Compare that to the Championship event, where each regional produces 6 invitations; where 2 of the invitations are filled by the 2 most competitive teams and the other 4 aren’t necessarily; unless the event was deep and the 20 something pick was still a good robot.
Also. STOP CALLING IT NATIONALS! Doesn’t World Championship have a stronger ring to it anyway?
Its an international competition, and it hasn’t been called nationals since 2002, when the Canadian Regional (now Greater Toronto West) started 11 years ago. In the time since, there is now 6 regionals (5 in Canada and 1 in Israel) that happen on international soil, and others in the works (AFAIK Australia and Mexico are on the fast track). 234 International teams (of 2538 registered teams in 2013 [9.2%]) representing 15 countries compete in FRC. To call FIRST Championship “Nationals” makes us feel like we don’t exist.
One of my pet peeves too, although I generally just cringe and deal with it.