For those saying “HoF teams shouldn’t go because the Chairman’s Award has nothing to do with robot performance and only good robots should go”…
Do you believe the current system of qualification is advancing the top performing robots this year?
Do you think it did last year as well?
How related is event success to robot excellence?
Why aren’t you people arguing that 3rd robots should not qualify?
As long as the championships allow in random wildcard teams to sign up for the championships regardless of their robot performance then the championships is not allowing the best robots to get into the event they’re just happy if the event is filled to capacity.
Don’t most HOF teams qualify for champs anyway?
I think the district model actually achieves this fairly well. If you are consistently getting to quarters and semis at your districts, you should almost have enough points to get you to worlds. Along with a couple awards for said excellent robot at your comps and you should be able to be ranking above other teams who got carried at 1 event but did poorly at the rest.
Wouldn’t it be cool if the whole world operated on districts…
-Ronnie
I know some HOF teams that haven’t done large amounts of outreach in many years. Recognizing efforts is important, but in an ironic way HOF disincentives more outreach in the future. Ideally any “true” HOF team would continue doing outreach regardless of the award, but realistically it ends up like that in some cases.
The invitation to champs should stay though IMO. HOF teams can work for the future of their team in that way, like how a parent could put money into a savings account for their children.
While I think an argument could be made against HoF teams and their ability to perpetually attend Champs without having to qualify in very specific instances (none of the same people are on the team, the team folded and restarted, etc), I think the general practice as is does little to harm the quality of Championships as a whole.
Now, if you want to talk about bolstering the quality of Championships, there’s a massive waitlist that goes on at each Championship which looks mighty tempting to cut out.
I could be wrong, but isn’t the number of waitlisted teams around 100 at both events by the time the season’s over? If not 100 at both events, then surely 100+ total. Couldn’t the arguments made about robot performance and/or no one on the team achieving the high honors of Chairman’s be made there, too?
We are a HOF team and have the option to automatically attend champs, but didn’t attend last year because we failed to qualify for a championship spot at a regional event. It provides more motivation to everyone involved to have to earn a spot each year, and people put in more work to make the team better.
It must have worked well, because we qualified for a champs spot at two regionals this year. 
If we hadn’t, we would not be attending. Nothing against teams that qualify as sustaining or through HOF, I like seeing them at champs and the number of spots they take up is fairly small.
Your mileage may vary, everyone gets to run their team the way they choose.
Weird thought I had:
HoF teams are barred from competing for Chairman’s and EI after they win, the logic being to give other teams a shot at winning Champs Chairman’s. HoF teams typically have a history of winning RCA and EI and qualifying for Champs. Taking that qualification option away because they won the highest honor in the sport is a total jerk move. So there’s only a few options:
2 was probably considered and dropped to make room for other teams to step up and win. 1 is the current system. Maybe 3 was considered, but how long is the right length of time to wait for 359 or 341 or whoever to win their second CA?
So I think the only reasonable option is either 1 or a rather long timeout on 3.
Neither of those things are true - nothing bars HoF teams from competing for EI, and HoF teams are allowed to compete for Chairman’s - at all levels - 5 years after their entry into the HoF.
254 is at that point.
The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated, :rolleyes: .
This just straight up made my day.
The HOF Status as an automatic qualifier to Championships has been discussed in recent years by FIRST and the HOF teams.
With the creation of 2 Championships, this “issue” sort of died because the number of teams that actually win by a qualifier other than a wildcard or waitlist is much less than the spots available.
Had their been 1 Championships with 400 teams under the old model, this would definitely have come up with the addition of new events every year.
Our team is in its 2nd year of being able to apply for an RCA. We have not elected to do so.
Ultimately, we need to consider what is best for our students in our program. We have a new crop of students who were not around when we won our RCA’s and CCA. If at some point, they decide that they want to try for it, I wont personally stop them or allow any of our mentors to also.
Our students work just as hard as the ones that came before them, if not more. If one day they decide to apply again, we will support it.
We have had a pretty good robot performance streak as of late. After winning the CCA, we have qualified by winning regional events and never had to use the automatic HOF bid.
I don’t have too much issue with the auto ticket because of the reasons above, mostly it not taking up too many spots. However, if they did make a change my thought is: You invite all HoF teams to apply for a fixed number of HoF ambassador spots (5-10 at each championship event). The ambassador spots come with some reasonable financial incentive (free registration, for example). The last two years of HOF inductees are automatically ambassadors. The applications are Chariman’s-esque and highlight the HoF continuing work in their community for FIRST and are judged on that criteria. The other HoF teams no longer have an auto invite, but attending teams are still invited to participate with the HoF area.
^ Troll deep enough, and you just might get really big fish to bite!
You can build up the teams of the present without demeaning teams from the past.
So far, with most districts not finished yet:
23 total Hall of Fame teams recognized by FIRST
21 HoF currently registered for a championship
9 HoF teams also qualified by their performance in the 2018 season
11 HoF teams qualified based on their HoF status alone
1 HoF team declined their prequalified slot and later qualified via performance
8 total original & sustaining teams recognized by FIRST
7 O&S currently registered for a championship
1 O&S team also qualified by their performance
6 O&S qualified based on their O&S status alone
Yes - I support the invitation to attend.
Winning this Award is, and always has been, THE best way for FIRST to demonstrate that this experience is NOT just about the robot.
It’s really more about the “program”, with no single individual, or robot, being the rationale for being chosen as the award recipient.
Due to this, I feel any, and all, previous Chairman’s Award winners should be extended the invitation to participate at the Championship Event- where another Award winner will be announced.
Mike
As stated above, champs isn’t just about the robot. In addition to the 2nd/3rd pick, there is also a rookie award that advances to champs. And the current year chairman’s/EI’s. Which don’t take into account robot performance. This creates a distribution of robots.
Also, in response to the comments about a pass to champs not being a big enough reward: knowing you are going to champs ahead of everyone else allows for booking travel way earlier. When it is less expensive and more convenient. So there is a financial incentive; it just isn’t supplied by FIRST.