Report of FLL Challenge Virtual Kickoff

FIRST Washington, our region’s local tournament operator, held a Virtual Kickoff (teleconference) to mark the release of the 2020-2021 RePLAY challenge by FIRST, to talk about the Tournament season, and answer qestions posed by team representatives.  A recording of the kickoff will be available on FIRSTWA’s website (eventually – it was not posted when this report was first written).  Only some limited highlights of the kickoff are included below.  The kickoff presenters were:

  • Kevin Ross, long-time FIRSTWA leader
  • Jacqueline Grimm, FIRSTWA’s FLL Challenge Senior Program Coordinator
  • Keven Torrico, FIRSTWA’s FLL Challenge Head Referee
  • Aaron Schmitz, FIRSTWA’s FLL Challenge Lead Judge Advisor

Overall Important Notes

  • The FLL Challenge season has been shifted to January – April due to Washington schools starting this fall with “remote only” instruction
  • The Tournament format has been modified somewhat:
    • There will now be just one combined 30-minute Judging session that evaluates all three Judged categories (Core Values, Innovation Project Presentation, and Robot Design) instead of three separate Judging sessions
    • Judging will be done using “remote” technology (video teleconference) for all Tournaments
    • Some Tournaments may have in-person robot games with small number of attendees at each Tournament; guidelines/format for “remote” robot game competition is under development
  • Tournament Awards have been consolidated; there will only be one Award in each Judged category (Core Values, Innovation Project, and Robot Design) instead of the three that some (larger) Tournaments had, plus the overall Champions Award
  • A new award for mentors who demonstrate exceptional Core Values and inspiration to students has been developed

Robot game rule highlights

  • There are only small general rules changes this year (last year’s big changes are being carried forward)
  • Inspection area rules are carried forward with bonus points for fitting in the small inspection area
  • If a team’s robot doesn’t fit completely into one of either the small inspection area OR the large inspection area (with a 12″ height limitation) then the match will still be run, but will not count for score for a non-compliant team
  • Home and Launch area rules are improved for clarity and ease of game play
  • Launching and Cargo rules have been simplified
  • Teams should be sure to carefully read all rules, and pay close attention to the blue text

Partial list of Q/A

  • Teams can start working now even though the competition season has been shifted
    • Current plans for Tournaments are Qualifiers the 3rd and 5th weekends in January, Semi-finals in February, and State Championships in March using remote formats if in-person Tournaments aren’t possible
    • The current Tournament schedule is subject to revision (it was made when Washington School Districts were planning on hybrid/some in-person instruction for the fall, and the new emphasis on no in-person instruction’s effect on teams has not been completely evaluated yet)
    • Until guidelines permit in-person activities, everyone recognizes that actual robot construction/programming/testing will be difficult for all but family teams or small cohorts/pods
  • As far as anyone knows, FIRST is not planning on making multiple Challenge sets available to a single team (to have individual students able to have their own table setups), nor will discounted robot kits be available (to make it less costly for teams to provide individual robot kits)
  • FIRST Washington has no medical expertise or authority in determining team meeting formats; everyone should follow their local School District/Board of Health guidance with respect to remote or in-person activities
    • Zoom and/or other remote tools may be helpful (e-mail, chat, other teleconference apps)
    • Innovation Project development can be done remotely
    • Strategies for playing the Robot Game and robot design approaches can be done using remote tools
  • FLL Challenge and FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Tournaments will use the same approaches (not the same rules obviously) for Tournaments this competition season
  • The need for/practice of Gracious Professionalism is paramount for the “remote” competitions; all teams need to track/report Robot Game scores honestly like golfers report their course scores
  • FIRSTWA will send out guidelines for running the remote competitions, selecting referees, and so forth
  • All team members must be on-line for the 30-minute remote Judging sessions
  • Spike Prime is out and is an allowable robot controller this year
  • There is an FLL Facebook group for registered coaches and mentors; there is no FIRST/FIRSTWA hosted chat/discussion group for students, but FIRSTWA will look into what it would take to have one
  • For this season,  electronic composition skills and graphics may be useful because NO hardcopies can be sent in for Judging; using the extra time in the fall to learn how to use electronic tools may be a good use of that time so that soft copy artifacts can be developed and sent in
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