Ohhhhhhhhh, you never knew FRC was a girl and FLL was a boy, did you?
You Make The Call (YMTC) has returned!!! YMTC is a series of situations where you can play ref and make a call. YMTC situations are not meant to represent situations that have occurred at competitions. Please note since the rules have not been released, I thought it would be good to practice our polling on a different topic.
FLL explored new ground this year by only allowing teams that are attending their first state tournament of the season to qualify for awards. Is it time for big sister to follow in little brother’s footsteps by only allowing teams attending their first regional to qualify for awards?
As part of a team that can hardly afford one regional, my first thought was that a rule like that would level the playing field more. But upon a few minutes thinking…
How depressing would it be, if your team did awesome and won an award, but it was your second regional. I think that the teams that work hard to raise the money to go to multiple regionals have earned their multiple chances. Even for the teams that don’t need to fundraise as much, because they have corporate sponsorship, there must be something about that team that made that corporate sponsor want to give them all of that money.
Besides, the current system seems to be working out. Why rock the boat (at least in this case). I haven’t heard of any teams that are heartbroken because they have not had the chance to attend championships (In fact there’s still 7 championship spots open). There is a certain feeling of accomplishment one gets by qualifying, but I don’t think I’d feel my team was any less worthy if we didn’t qualify by winning something.
Teams that go to more than one regional put a whole lot of extra work in to raise the money (I’ve experienced this first hand), so while yes, it may be unfair for them to possibly win so many awards, they’ve usually done a lot more work to get to where they are.
Besides, Chairmans Award is like this, as you can only submit one. This is the most important award, likewise you have one shot to win it. Sure, winning the reigonal is a lot of fun and a great experience, but I’m sure that winning the regional even a million times is nothing like winning Chairmans Award, because it takes a huge team effort to win Chairmans Award.
And like Allison K said, why bother changing something that works? As the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
I did not vote. Neither of the options are the one that I like. What I would like to see for awards is the inability of a team to win the same award at multiple regionals. I have no problem with a team winning competitions at multiple regionals as it would be unfair to have them compete and then not allowed into the playoffs. If a team wins Sportsmanship at one regional then they would not be allowed to win Sportsmanship at a second regional. They would still be eligible to win other awards at the second regional. This would allow for different teams to be rewarded and not one team dominating. When they get to Championship, or if, then the best should come out on top.
Just my thoughts. Feel free to shoot down or modify.
If we only let teams get awards at their first regional of the season, what about the teams that don’t go to a regional until one of the last two weeks in the season? They will have a greatly increased chance of winning awards because many of the other teams will have already been to another regional. Say half of the teams in a given regional already attended a regional that season, there would be half as much competition for the awards because you already know that half of the teams are ineligible.
Steve W’s thoughts would work, because it still allows teams to win even if they already went to a regional and did not win anything, but I still think that the most deserving teams are very hard-working teams and they will and should ultimately win the awards.
I’m just curious–other than awards like Regional Champion, does anyone have some figures on how many teams have won the same award at two different regionals in a season? It might just be a non-issue.
I believe that generally the judges know if a team has won a technical award at a previous regional, because I can’t ever remember having a team win a technical award more than once.
I agree with Steve here. A team should not be recognized for the same thing at two different events. For instance, if one team receives the Rookie All Star award at two different regionals they are taking another rookie team’s chance to be recognized for their hard work plus take away their chance to go to Championship. That example is on the more extreme side but still valid. The team that is way above the rest in one category will over shadow all the teams in each of their regionals, those teams won’t get the recognition they deserve. If a team really stands out above the rest, they can show that by then winning at the Championship. This should apply for judged awards, not winning an event. That’s the way I see it.
I see no problem with a team winning other awards at each event. A team may be second best for a technical award at one regional but be the best at another. They should be able to be recognized for that. There are a few awards where I think FIRST should set some limit however:the judged awards that qualify team to go to Championship. Teams should be required to submit to their “local” regional for these. It’s not right for a team to submit their Chairman’s award or Woodie Flower’s award to a weaker regional far away to make it easier to win. It’s important that each regional gets the opportunity to be recognized at Championships by having the ability to submit a candidate from their area.
Just a note. I have seen were teams did this and other teams had the same idea. There were 5 past Chairmans award winners and 4 other strong teams applying at a regional with less than 30 teams. Pretty tough competition.
I agree with Steve and Cory that a regional award winner should not be eligable for the same award at other regionals, but there are a few thoughts I Had. Every regional has a different crew of judges, each with their own personality and criteria of what an award winning team is- especially for the abstract awards like team spirit, incredible play, judges award, etc. However, for the technical awards, particularly things like leadership in control and driving tomorrow’s technology, what if there is a team with an incredible system that stands out from anything else out there, at every competition they attend.
The realist in me says a superb technical achievment should be recognized no matter where it’s been or what it’s been awarded before. Each robot should be weighed against other robots equally at each regional individually, regardless of what awards it’s already won. If there’s a technical achievement worthy of recognition, and it’s innovative enough to be identified by the judges at each regional, why wouldn’t it be eligable for the award?
The logical/better side of me says it’s in the interest of all teams to prevent award domination. As great as any technical innovation may be, there are always plenty of new ideas and ingenuity at every competition that deserves recognition. Just because one team has an incredible arm that can do everything well doesn’t mean another team’s 4 speed automatic transmission is any less deserving of attention, or that another team’s incredible autonomous mode programming isn’t worthy of recognition. It’s important to acknowledge as many teams as possible with awards, not only for recognition, but because in many cases it adds fuel to a team’s competative spirit, and can often increase support within a community.
Marc, that is why I said that the best will rise to the top at Championship. I have no problem if only winners are judged at Championship except that some teams may have been able to improve whatever during the season and deserve a second look. When the best meet in Atlanta then the cream should rise to the top.
I am writing this coming from a team that won 2 regional website awards and then the Championship Website Award. I can’t see were losing one of those awards would have hurt our team or changed the eventual outcome.