The 2005 Championship Eligibility Process is shown below to better serve the teams participating in the program and allow more time to plan for the event.
Merit Based qualifying is focused on FIRST core values. Outstanding team performance or outstanding robot performance is the ticket. For a rookie team, a balanced combination is the way to qualify.
Teams’ performance (points, awards, etc.) in the previous season is NO longer a determining factor.
The previous year’s Chairman’s Award Winner, the Engineering Inspiration Award Winner and FIRST Frenzy Champions do qualify.
The pool of slots that remain will be allocated with preference to those who have waited longest to attend a Championship.
**Prequalifying Teams - **
All prior Championship Chairman’s Award winners (12)
Original and sustaining teams from 1992 (7)
2004 Championship “FIRST Frenzy” winners (3)
2004 Championship Engineering Inspiration Award winner (1)
**Merit Based Qualifying Teams from the current season - **
Regional Chairman’s Award winners (1 per Regional)
Regional Engineering Inspiration Award winners (1 per Regional)
Regional Rookie All-Star Award winners (1 per Regional)
Regional Champions (number per regional event TBD based on the 2005 game)
Open Registration in the Fall:
A selected number of Championship slots will be available for open registration. The slots will be based on the number of years since a team last attended the Championship. All teams will be classified in a Tier, i.e. Tier 6 equals six years since attending a Championship; Tier 2 equals two years since attending. Teams never attending will have their tier based on their rookie year: 2004 rookies are tier 2, 2003 rookies are tier 3, etc. If the number of teams in a tier is greater than the number of available openings, FIRST will use a lottery system to determine team eligibility for remaining open slots. The final determination will be first come/first serve until all available openings are filled. A wait list will be maintained for any openings that become available during the season.
Click here to view the list of teams in each tier. FIRST has designed this system to give every team the option to attend the Championships at least once during the academic career of each high school student. We encourage teams to take advantage of this opportunity as often as possible, and we hope you get as much excitement and inspiration from the Championship event as we do.
I’ll start by saying the ideal would be to allow all capable teams to attend, but I also know what a logistical and practical nightmare that would be, 700+ teams gathered in one place. With that in mind, I like the eligability layed out for 2005. It focuses more on the merrits of the current season than that of seasons past. The Chairmans award winners, the original teams, the Engineering Inspiration winners, and the 2004 champions all have earned the honor of attending, so by all means the first invitations go to them. The next level of qualification seems fair, as it places the eligability on performance in that current season, rather than the point system from last year. This makes sure the best alliances from each regional move on to the championship. And of course, with so many remaining slots open, we turn to the tier system. While not perfect, given the task of filtering out 600+ teams, it’s only logical to base the tiers on time. The longer you’ve not attended nationals, the better chance you have of entering. Should the tiers be ranked by regional performance as well, rather than a random lottery?
I understand why these criteria were established. But the logistics of getting permissions for a team from 5 high schools, and raising the funds, in order to go on a trip at the last minute will be a nightmare (we’re a Tier 1 team).
If I am reading this correctly, 23 teams are already qualified to attend. Six teams will qualify at each Regional (1 Chairman’s, 1 Rookie, 1 Engineering Inspiration and 3 Champions) times about 30 regionals = ±180 teams (but there may be some duplicate winners). So there will be around 100 slots left for the remaining teams to fill. It sounds like Tier 8 teams will be given first choice at registering, followed by Tier 7 teams, etc. If they get to a tier that has more teams in it than there are slots left available, then the lottery system falls into place. Since the tiers are based on the last year you attended, teams who have not been in a long time have been given priority. If you have never attended, the tiers were assigned based on your first year in FIRST.
I personally think that all of the division winners from the 2004 nationals should be allowed to return to defend their title, though I must admit I’m a little biased. Anyone else agree?
Well, we’re one of the lucky ones that have qualified for the championship already. However this tier system is going to hurt some teams. Previously there was the point system, I understand why FIRST wants to focus more on a team’s achievement that year, but there are A LOT of great teams in tier 1. What will hurt teams is that a lot of them improve through regionals and such, some teams do great at Nationals and not regionals. Overall the new system is ok, but I like the 2004 system better.
Tier 8 would have first bid into championships. Your tier is how many years it’s been since you attended a championship. Tier 1 means you went in the previous season, tier 8 means you haven’t gone in 8 years.
I agree with you. I agree with FIRSTs efforts to get all the teams to the Championship, but its going to hurt a LOT of teams. If we look at is as so everyone gets a chance to go to the championship, its a good system. Some teams who deserve to be there might just not be able to make it. For e.g. Last minute travelling stuff… I just see too much chaos in this system, but I guess we’ll have to adjust. I liked the earlier system better… but thats just me…
-Bharat
I believe that you will see more teams attending regionals and not applying for Championship if they are in tier 1. Our team is planning on going to California next year as we don’t think we will be at Championships. I believe that this will be our 1st year missing championships and even if we qualify I don’t know if we wil have the money after going to California.
Who says you have to qualify to compete in order to attend? Go ahead and plan for the team to go to Atlanta anyway. It’s bound to be an inspiring trip.
The school boards will not let that happen. Belonging to the team is so costly in the first place, and they would never approve an out of state trip, plus taking students out of classes for several days, unless it were to compete.
I imagine we will probably hold a team vote to decide on what long-distance regional we will attend in place of going to Atlanta.
The “restrictions” (odd/even, points, and tiers)on teams attending nationals have only existed for about 4 years. So in the very low tiers (5-8) why has it been that long since they attended (or never attended)? Lack of funds? Lack of Interest?
In terms on basing it on the current years performance, that is a fund raising nightmare. It’s hard enough to get all the money when you know you’re going. When you have 2 business days to decide and only 2 or 3 weeks to get all arrangements made… Makes it very hard logistically. In terms of things like airline tickets, they will be much much more expensive because you are traveling so soon. (if you can even get the number you need for your team that close to the flight date). I think the financials and the travel planning need to be revised before this system will really work well. Some ideas brought up yesterday at the FIRST Forum in NJ were:
Qualify for this year OR next year (your choice)
Have a loan program. (w/ next years elegibility to compete dependent on paying off the loan)
