I'm going to have to go with WGI's decision on this. Yes it is unfair for WGI to allow all Open and World class groups to move on to finals regardless of score. Although in someways you can say WGI is giving them an added incentive for going to the regionals they go to because most of the Open and World groups do go to WGI Championships. In no way am I saying that A class groups who go to regionals don't go to Championships but so many of the A class groups who go to regionals don't go to Championships because of it's location.
This year we're lucky enough to have WGI be in California, but we all knew what that would mean in terms of Championship participation. Most of the California groups in the World and Open classes have been going to Championships consitently over the past couple of years. If you go to the WGI website and look at the groups registered in A class for Championships, it's a tremendous amount, and many groups are from California who are going for the first time.
By WGI limiting the number of A class groups in regionals (both pre-lims and finals) The really competitive A class groups have a better chance of seeing where they stand going into WGI Championships. Like cgmime32 said, the best of the best.
To shed some light:
Quote:
Or am I misunderstanding WGi's rule of past years where it requires a score to advance and not a classification?
Until this year the top 15 Scholastic A Class groups moved forward in Regionals, not sure how many IA class groups moved forward. Beginning this year for Regionals, both Independent and Scholastic A class groups must earn a score of 15 points below block to make finals, so just because you're an SA group who was 10th place you may not make finals because you didn't meet the mimimum score. Note that the block score increases as the season progresses. WGI Championships uses a different process for A class.
This is why regionals such as Hayward, Las Vegas, and Riverside capped the entries to 70 instead of 90, due to the amount of Open and World class groups that move on to finals.