I have an idea I would like to pose to the VEX communtiy for feedback/commentary. For this year’s game, the FIRST robotics competition has implemented a wildcard qualification system for their championship event. Under this system, should a member of the winning alliance at a regional tournament already have a spot at the championship, their spot is given to the highest ranked member of the finalist alliance (alliance capitan) or which ever team that is the highest ranked without a spot (eg. if alliance capitain already has a spot, first pick would get it and so forth). This does not mean that the winning alliance does not get the champion title, or that their partners don’t get spots if they don’t have them, it just helps to distribute the qualifying spots more evenly instead of concentrating multiples with a few powerhouse teams. After seeing some of the same teams consistently winning multiple events, and preventing other teams from getting spots, I think it would be a good idea if VEX tried something like this next year. I am not saying that a lot of those teams don’t deserve to win, but it would be nice if those teams didn’t prevent others from going to the world championships. I have no idea if this would lead to overcrowding at worlds or how that would be dealt with if it did, but it just seemed odd to me that a team can qualify one robot multiple times for the same achievement. What are your thoughts on this?
You have to remember that only a certain number of teams can physically attend worlds. While you may observe some teams gaining multiple qualifying spots, I’m pretty sure this behaviour is EXPECTED when allocating numbers of qualifying spots to regions. I bet that Vex intentionally allocates more spots to a region than they expect teams to qualify, because of teams taking multiple spots. If a system like the one you suggested did exist, then regions would have to have far less tournaments, or fewer qualifying spots at their tournaments. Alternatively, the size of the World Championships could be increased, but I feel like 4 divisions is enough as it is :rolleyes:.
I have been wanting vex to apply an idea like this for a long time. It can get somewhat aggravating to see the same few teams win all of the worlds slots at every competition you go to. I mean, my team has qualified and it still gets under my skin to the point that i withdrew my team from competing for the excellence and design awards at our last competition.