Florida 2016

[Unome]

This is true. If you want to know why (and your team is registered with the state already) then your coach received an email about the reason(s). Ultimately, this change avoids future issues within Florida and is in everyone's best interest.

Just wondering; are you willing to (or able to) tell us the reason?

The group that was responsible for creating the exam material last year did not shown that they can produce a high-quality exam along with the fact that having access to a computer lab is not always possible within the state. That is the summary of what I know but I am not completely "in the know". It was decided to run Awesome Aquafers as a C division event in its place.

Ok; from the way you worded your response, it sounded like there was a bit more egregious of a cause.

[Fluorine]

Interesting set of clarifications/rule tweaks for Florida. Any thoughts?

[windu34]

Still hating the Invasives situation. Its making the event a horror to do despite how fun and challenging it can be at a properly, well run competition. Regionals and states were horrible last year.

EV and Scrambler make sense. That part in the rules was probably just added to prevent another ohio state situation occurring.

The aquifers thing makes sense too, but I really wish they would just add and remove parts of hydro then call it "awesome aquifers". This is Div C....not Div B

[Adi1008]

Telling competitors the theme for game on before the tournament doesn't seem like a great idea to me - I'm pretty sure most people will just copy (literally press "remix") a really good game as opposed to come up with their own stuff. Also... notes for game on? I don't really like that either...

The hard part of game on was memorizing things beforehand (so you could do them really quickly) and being creative and resourceful during a time crunch - this change gets ride of not one, but both of these things (unlimited time and no need to memorize). In the end, the games will be (wayyy) better, but the challenge will be mostly gone.

I kinda think the current (last year's ) rules were the best thing for game on, and that the event is just inherently flawed

I've never done EV (although planning on doing so this year!!), but I did do wheeled. I think that rule change is good; prevents anything like Ohio last year from happening (edit: realized windu already said this while I was typing this up, but whatever )

[dcrxcode]

Has the forensics modification every been used before? And to what effect? I'm curious because I'm not really sure it fits in with the way the event is set up with a case and write up.

[Fluorine]

Still hating the Invasives situation. Its making the event a horror to do despite how fun and challenging it can be at a properly, well run competition. Regionals and states were horrible last year.

EV and Scrambler make sense. That part in the rules was probably just added to prevent another ohio state situation occurring.

The aquifers thing makes sense too, but I really wish they would just add and remove parts of hydro then call it "awesome aquifers". This is Div C....not Div B

Agree with you on Invasives it takes the challenge out of the event by providing 400 species that you only have to ID. Won this event last year at states & regionals and though it was nice the exams themselves were not enjoyable.

The "awesome aquifers" thing is funny!! When I started SO I made fun of the fact that C division events have for the most part pretty serious names, but B division has like "Crave the Wave," "Crime Busters," and "Food Science," which are all more "fun." Guess now C has awesome aquifers now which really stands out compared to the other event names.

[JonB]

Has the forensics modification every been used before? And to what effect? I'm curious because I'm not really sure it fits in with the way the event is set up with a case and write up.

It has not been done like this in Florida (as far as I remember). I believe that the state is working on making Forensics higher quality at the state level being that there have been issues over the course of the past several years with that event. I am glad to see this change!

[Verdigris]

@JonB, I see, that makes sense.

I think the Forensics change is a fun idea, we'll have to see how well it works.