All,

A handful of items for everyone today!

• Sunday 10/30 – Scrimmage/Workday
• Robot Inspection at Qualifying Tournaments
• Qualifying Tournament Preparations
• December Tournament Registration Opening 10/30 @ 7pm
• Team Demographics Survey

Sunday 10/30 Scrimmage/Workday

There are currently only a couple of teams that have expressed interest in a scrimmage.  We will be at The Play Space from 10am to at least 4pm for teams to come and practice. We will have a full field setup, tables for teams to work at, and an inspection table for teams to go through a mock inspection.

There is plenty of space for up to 16 teams.  If your team is interested, bring your robot, try it out on the field, get an inspection done, or just come to ask questions or get help with your robot!

Robot Inspection at Qualifying Tournaments

In the past couple of years, the biggest hurdle for all qualifying tournaments has been getting robot inspections done in a manner that allowed the tournaments to run smoothly and on schedule.

Teams should expect that the inspection process needs to be completed according to the schedule published for the tournaments they attend.  The top priorities for the team during the morning are attending judging and getting their robot inspected.

Plan on arriving on time, with a robot that has been through a team self-inspection and is ready for a full-blown inspection.  The morning of a tournament is NOT the time to finish building your team’s robot.  It should arrive ready to play!

Teams should expect that if they have not made efforts to get their robot through inspection in a timely way, that they may end up not being able to compete in the matches at the tournament.

Use the self-inspection worksheet. Come to the workday/scrimmage on 10/30. Make robot inspection an easy process, painless!

Qualifying Tournament Preparations

All teams should start to think about being ready for qualifying tournaments. Things to have ready:

• Team Roster
• Spare parts
• Team notebook
• Extension cord & power strips
• Spare batteries & charger(s)

Your team should receive a welcome email from the tournament hosts for the tournaments you are attending shortly before the tournament.  It is important to pay attention to that email! There are critical pieces of info that may be included, such as:

• Team Bio/Picture needs for tournament program
• special constraints on what is allowed in the pits (i.e. power tools … or not)
• information about food options for the tournament
• information about directions and parking for the venue

Don’t ignore the email and don’t put off responding to any requests for information!

December Tournament Registration

First play registration for December tournaments will open on Sunday 10/30 at 7pm. If you are not familiar with the NorCal FTC registration process, please read through the article on the NorCalFTC.org website:

http://www.norcalftc.org/2016-velocity-vortex-qualifying-tournament-registration/

The list of December (and January) tournaments can be seen now at:

http://www.norcalftc.org/2016-norcal-ftc-qualifying-tournaments/

There is a slight possibility of one or two more additional December tournaments being added.  They will be added to the list if/when they are confirmed.

Team Demographics Survey

We are working on developing a team demographics survey to help us provide the information that potential NorCal FTC Sponsors are looking for about our teams and our community.

When the survey is announced, please take the time to completely fill out the survey for your team.  The information we collect will be aggregate statistics for the team and will allow us to increase the current level of sponsor support and help the NorCal FTC program continue to grow and potentially reduce the costs to teams.

Thanks for reading this far and hope to see everyone at a tournament soon!

– Mark Edelman

4 Items for today!

• Grants Available
• Tournament Registration Opening 10/09 @ 7pm
• Scrimmages/Workshops – 10/22 and 10/29
• Getting Ready For Qualifying Tournaments

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Grants Available

There are still grants available for teams that qualify! Rookie team grants and PG&E grants are still available!

If you are applying for the Rookie Team Grant, make sure not to pay for your team registration until after hearing about your grant status.  The Rookie grant includes a registration waiver.

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Tournament Registration Opening 10/09 @ 7pm

Registration for qualifying tournaments will begin Sunday, October 9th at 7pm with the 1st Play registration for the October/November tournaments.  Not sure what “1st Play” means? There is a brief explanation of the phases of registration available on the website.

Tournaments for December & January are still being confirmed and registration for them will follow later in October and November. See the 2016 Velocity Vortex Qualifying Tournament Registration Page for more info on the registration timelines!

There are a few changes to the process this year that are worth understanding:

• Teams must be “eligible” to compete before they will be allowed to register.  This requires that the team has paid its registration fee with FIRST and has 2 screened coaches associated with the team. Teams that are not currently eligible will not be able to register for tournaments
• Registration waves only run through “3rd Play”.  FIRST Tech Challenge rules limit a team to earning judged awards or advancing to the NorCal FTC Regional Championship at only the 1st three NorCal Qualifying Tournaments that they attend. Teams wishing to compete beyond 3 events do so only for fun and learning.
• Waitlist – this year we will be maintaining a waitlist for teams that are interested in attending tournaments beyond 3 or to fill in space at tournaments that are currently full.  The Waitlist will be an ordered list. If/when a tournament space becomes available, it will be offered to the first team in the Waitlist.  If that team declines, they are moved to the end of the Waitlist and the opportunity is passed to the next team in order until the space is filled or all teams have declined.
• Out-of-Region teams – this year, teams from outside the NorCal FTC region will need to contact Playing At Learning to be allowed to register during the “3rd Play” phase of registration

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Scrimmages/Workshops

We have two pre-season scrimmages/workshops planned for October. These are informal, low stress opportunities to do a quick check of your robot on a full playing field with other robots in action too!

We will have “inspectors” on hand to help teams prep and be ready for robot inspection at their qualifying tournaments.

10/22 9am-4pm The Play Space – Scrimmage & Robot Check

10/29 1pm-6pm The Play Space – Scrimmage, Robot Check & Scarifier Setup

Details on how to RSVP for these scrimmages will be announced soon!

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Getting Ready for Qualifying Tournaments

Every year, our early season tournaments struggle to keep their schedules because teams aren’t prepared! There are several things your team can do to help make sure everyone at the tournament has a great day!

• Show up on time! The tournament depends on the teams showing up on time and being ready for inspection and judging during the morning hours. Don’t assume that you can show up late and that everyone will adapt to your lateness! If something happens and your team is going to be late, let the tournament director know as soon as possible.
• Get inspected early! All teams that are going to participate in match play at a tournament MUST pass inspection. The tournament match list can’t be completed until the status of robot inspection is known for all teams. Too many events run late because teams don’t prioritize getting their robot inspected and make the entire morning run slowly. Robot inspection for all teams should be completed no later than 10am! Teams that make no attempt to get their robots inspected in a timely manner should expect that there is a high probability of not being included in the match schedule for the tournament! It is not fair to the other teams to expect everyone to wait for your team to finish inspection.
• Pre-inspect your robot Take the time to run through a mock inspection of your robot before coming to a tournament. The two scrimmages in October are great opportunities to have a 3rd-party inspection of your robot to make sure you don’t have any inspection surprises at your tournaments. There is a set of inspection checklists (Robot Inspection & Field Inspection) included in Part 1 of the Game Manual.  Use them!
• Know the event schedule & match schedule All qualifying tournaments in NorCal run with the same basic schedule. There should be no surprises! Your team should pay attention to the match list when it is published and know what matches you are playing in!  Plan on being ready a match or two ahead of your scheduled matches!
• Practice match setup Pre-match robot setup (and post-match removal from the field) can significantly slow down a tournament day. Practice your setup routine. If it takes you longer than 60 seconds to setup your robot for a match, you should re-evaluate your plans! Discussions with alliance partners about robot placement should happen in the queue, not on the field.

With your team’s help, the events should all run smoothly and on time!

5 Items today!

• 5 Days to Kickoff!
• Beacon Reprogramming
• LEGO Disassembly Party – 9/11
• Dent:Space Demonstrations – 9/21 & 9/22
• Coming Soon: Judging Feedback Workshop

5 Days to Kickoff

The list of workshops is now updated and will be available for registration today at 6pm!

Got to:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2016-norcalftc-kickoff-and-workshops-registration-27356751781

to RSVP for your your team to attend the kickoff and to attend workshops.  please limit your workshop registrations to allow for as many teams as possible to participate.

Beacon Reprogramming

We will have a beacon re-programmer available for use at the Kickoff! You will need to remove the circuit board from your existing beacons to allow them to be reprogrammed.

LEGO Disassembly Party – Sat 9/11

We will be holding a volunteer “party” to disassemble old FIRST LEGO League field setups to prepare them for bulk sale. Please visit the RSVP form (http://www.playingatlearning.org/events/lego-party/) to signup to help!

Dent:Space  FIRST Tech Challenge Demos

We will be demoing FIRST Tech Challenge as part of the Dent:Space Conference.  We are looking for a handful of teams with functional robots that are willing to help out Sept 21st and 22nd 9am to 6pm.  If you are willing to help during part of that time, please send an email to ftc@playingatlearning.org

Coming Soon: Judging Feedback Workshop

We are piloting a new type of opportunity for teams to get feedback about their judging experiences. This will be open to returning teams with a preference for teams that have not been successful in prior year’s qualifying tournaments. We will share more details soon.

Kickoff for the 2016-2017 FIRST Tech Challenge season is almost here!

We have a confirmed location for our Kickoff event:

Encinal High School
210 Central Ave
Alameda, CA

The event will run from 8am to 3pm and will include workshops, the game unveil and lots of opportunities to check out the new game.

The general schedule for the day will be:

8:00 – Guess the Game Element Contest
8:30 – Doors open
9:00 – Game Unveil & Q/A Session
11:00 – Lunch break
12:00 – Workshop Session #1
1:00 – Workshop Session #2
2:00 – Workshop Session #3

FTC Teams that have completed their registration with FIRST will receive a game element to take home!

We are looking for veteran teams willing to run workshops on:

• Java Programming for FTC
• 3d printing
• Scouting
• Control System
• Judging
• PTC Creo
• Math CAD
• Dean’s List
• Engineering Notebook
• Working with Git & GitHub
• Qualifying Tournament Registration Basics
• Robot Inspection
• Other Suggestions?

Additionally, we will be offering a couple of info/discussion sessions:

• Coaches’ Roundtable
• What are FTC Leagues & How Do They Work?
• New to FIRST
• Transitioning from FLL to FTC Successfully
• Hosting an FLL Jr Expo

Teams will be requested to pre-register to attend for the Kickoff as well as the workshops

Watch for more details coming soon!