The FTC 2018-19 Promote and Compass Awards page is open for submissions.
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: Wed. January 30th
For further description of the awards, click here.
FTC Reston will now be known as FTC Reston at Centreville Qualifier, and will take place on 1/26/19 at Centreville High School in Clifton, VA.
Thank you for your patience!
The GW Community School and Coyote Robotics announce their 7th Annual Pre-States Scrimmage, to be held Monday, Jan 21 (Martin Luther King Holiday). Come to our school at 9001 Braddock Rd, Ste. 111, Springfield, VA between 1:00PM and 4:00PM. You will have space to work on your robot and can use our tools and supplies if needed. We will have a full field set up so you can test and adjust your Autonomous routines and can practice your TeleOp. If we have enough teams with working robots who want to scrimmage, we can run matches also. This will be a good chance to test and practice less than 2 weeks before the State Championships on Feb. 2nd . We will have Certified Robot Inspector(s) and Referee(s), as well as a sizing box. You can see if your robot is ready to pass the inspections. You can ask questions about the game play and rules.
There will be no charge. We can probably accommodate up to 10 teams. Please email Gary Lindner at lindnergt@gwcommunityschool.com if you are interested in coming. Even if you are not going to states, you can still come and get a chance to compete your robot again without worrying about Judges, Displays and Notebooks.
Our school is located at 9001 Braddock Rd, Suite 111, Springfield, VA 22151. We are located 2 miles West of the Beltway I-495 on Braddock Rd., between the intersections of Braddock Rd with Burke Lake Rd and Rolling Road, on the South side of Braddock. We are on the ground floor of a 3-story office building behind the Kings Park Shopping Center. It is most convenient to park in the Eastern part of the building parking lot and enter through the ground-floor entrance at the center of the East side of the building. The school entrance is at the end of the central hallway.
The FTC Reston Qualifier scheduled for Sunday January 13th has been cancelled due to winter weather, but will be rescheduled.
Please watch the FIRST Chesapeake blog and social media for updates.
Team 6700 XBOTS & ILITE Robotics teams will be hosting a scrimmage on January 26th 2019 from 10AM to 1PM at the Aux Gym at Battlefield High School. We hope this gives teams who are going to states time to practice and hang out with other teams.
We have limited spots open, so please let us know as soon as you can if you are interested by emailing team XBOTS (mailto:xbots.team@gmail.com ) before 1/15/19. If there are more teams signing up than can be accommodated, we will chose by lottery and let everyone know by 1/19/19.
Address:15000 Graduation Drive, Haymarket, VA
Location: Auxiliary Gym.
Time: 10AM to 1PM
Please note that Battlefield HS will also be hosting STEAM Expo on January 26th.
You may contact Brian Shepard (bshepard@pwcs.edu) if you have questions about directions, facilities, or the STEAM Expo, and nagesh.chintada@gmail.com if you have any questions about scrimmage.
We will have a certified referee to help make the event run smoothly. If you are participating, plan to stay between 10 and 1 to have maximum fun!
The FTC SWCC Richlands Qualifier this Saturday the 12th has been cancelled due to snow, but will be rescheduled. We hope to announce a new date on Monday. Thank you.
*UPDATE 1/12/19- FTC SWCC Richlands Qualifier has been rescheduled for Saturday 1/19/19.*
Thank you so much for your patience with FIRST Chesapeake as we work to find a balance between keeping our teams safe during winter travel, and providing the needed qualifier slots to accommodate our teams for the remainder of the FTC season.
We hoped that by this afternoon we would have a definitive answer about the FTC Reston Qualifier on Sunday the 13th. Unfortunately, due to underlying circumstances, we have to ask you to be patient just a little longer. At this time the Reston qualifier status remains "pending due to winter weather" Please look for an email from Kristin Clemons tomorrow evening with the final determination.
If the circumstances dictate that we cancel the qualifier at Reston this weekend, Please know, we fully understand the amount of effort our students put into their robotics season and want to do whatever we can to give them an opportunity to compete. While we have not yet made the final determination to cancel, in order to be proactive, we are working towards an alternative date now.
Thank you.
Reprinted from firstinspires: http://firsttechchallenge.blogspot.com/2019/01/hello-teams-once-again-im-pleased-to.html
Once again, I’m pleased to let you know that FIRST Tech Challenge will invite teams to apply for a waitlist spot for the FIRST World Championship tournament that serves their region. As we expand the event to 160 teams in both Houston and Detroit, I’m glad to have the opportunity to share the excitement of this grand event with even more students!
Here’s what you need to know about the waitlist:
- Your team can apply for the waitlist for the Championship Tournament that serves your region through the team dashboard at firstinspires.org.
- The waitlist is open now, and will remain open through February 14, 2019.
- We will do one drawing for each event, on February 15, 2019.
- Teams who have already participated in their State or Regional Championship Tournament, but have not advanced will receive an invitation from FIRST on February 18th, and will have one week to let us know if they do or do not plan to attend.
- Teams who did not earn their way to their State or Regional Championship Tournament will receive an invitation from FIRST on February 18th, and will have one week to let us know if they do or do not plan to attend.
- Teams from regions that have not held their State or Regional Championship Tournament will only receive an invitation after their event has taken place.
- Approximately 12 waitlist spots have been allocated for each of the two World Championship Tournaments
- Teams from the US and Canada must be fully registered in the FIRST Team Registration System. The Lead Coach/Mentor 1 and the Lead Coach/Mentor 2 must be screened.
- Teams from Mexico and outside North America must be fully registered in the FIRST Team Registration System and a Lead Coach/Mentor 1 and a Lead Coach/Mentor 2 must be assigned to the team.
As in previous seasons, this is not a first come – first served waitlist. When teams apply, their team number is entered into a lottery. Team numbers are weighted using the following criteria:
Receiving one lottery entry:
- Rookie Teams
- Teams that attended a World Championship event in April of 2018
- Inactive Veteran teams that returned in the current season
Receiving two lottery entries:
- Teams that were Rookie Teams in the 2017-2018 season
- Teams that last attended the World Championship in April of 2017
- Inactive Veteran teams that returned in the 2017-2018 season
Receiving three lottery entries:
- Teams that were Rookie Teams in the 2016-2017 season
- Teams that last attended the World Championship in April of 2016
- Inactive Veteran teams that returned in the 2016-2017 season
The maximum number of lottery entries for any team is 11.
If you have questions about how the waitlist works or applying, please send them to JoAnn at FirstTechChallengeTeams@firstinspires.org, and include “Championship Waitlist” in the email subject line.
Good Luck!
JoAnn Halloran, Program Manager
FIRST Tech Challenge
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