What is the hardest regional to win RCA or EI at? From my own research on tba here is what I found about my Old team’s (1987) two regionals and my new team’s (3792) regional and here is what I found:
Greater Kansas City:
RCA: 16
E.I: 16
St. Louis:
RCA: 10
E.I: 8
Hub City:
RCA: 7
E.I: 7
Based on just these three regionals its obvious to me that some regionals might be easier to win RCA and E.I. than others. My ultimate question is where is the toughest.
It depends on how you define “hardest”. IMO, if there was a team that was at HoF level Chairman’s, then the Chairman’s would be hard to win since that team will probably win it. However, you could also define it as an event where there are a lot of teams submitting, because that makes for more competition.
Obviously, if my initial definition is used, the event should change every year based on attending teams (new HoF members become ineligible, thus removing that layer of competitiveness from the event).
I would probably say that a Michigan State Championship Chairman’s is one of the hardest to win (unless you’re 503), but they are giving 4 Chairman’s awards this year instead of the usual 3.
I would also imagine that it’s harder to win RCA at an earlier event than at a later event. A team that is really dominate in RCA are more likely to win it at their first event and won’t be in the running for it at a later one.
I was going by the number of blue banners previously won that are attending the regional. But of course I welcome input on regionals were there are strong teams that attend on a regular basis making it hard to win, unless your the team that wins often. I was more refereeing to those of us who are not those teams.
An interesting development that the district system brings is that there are no longer “home town teams” that may or may not have an implicit advantage or disadvantage in the submission process. 836 and 1086 have their most recent RCA wins outside of their home regional, but all other teams you could say are in contention for the three bids won their most recent or all of their RCA banners at their home event.
As of Aerial Assist, all teams submit Chairman’s at all district events/regionals until they win. But I can understand by that logic how teams at later regionals do have better chances of winning. However, each regional does have its “powerhouses”, which can range from just 2-3 to up to 20 teams.
I’m pretty sure that none of us with 1108 think of GKC as ‘easy’ to win and even with 1710 in Knoxville, we’ll still see some really amazing teams like 1986 and 3528, 1730, 3172.
We’ve done our best with outreach and community involvement to be a model team this year and we’ll have a great presentation. We’ll hope for the best!
Unless something changed this year, 540 is not doing RCA this year, and hasn’t done it in the past. While my former team does normally do quite a bit of outreach, the team has never attempted to win a RCA. Instead, they opt for EI.
I’d love to see 1086 rewarded for all their hard work. They unfortunately didn’t win any Chairman’s awards last year, but they’re definitely a deserving team.
