Dear Coach,

We are just about 5 weeks away from this year’s FIRST LEGO League Qualifying Tournaments! Saturday, April 10 is an important day to mark on your calendars, but because of the Remote Event format, some elements of the competition will happen BEFORE that day. Below are key dates your team needs to know to be successful. Reminder: You can access this document and any others that have been sent out on our blog.

Your team should have received an invitation to the Remote Hub tournament.  This is where you will submit all your judging materials prior to your competition time and view any deadlines associated with your tournament. This guide from FIRST gives instructions on how to access the Hub.

• Key dates:
  • March 20th @ 5:00 pm – Deadline to submit:
    • All Team members added to your team profile on the FIRST Dashboard
    • Team Roster submitted
    • Practice run video submitted
    • Team Judging Information Form submitted with Zoom Accounts for each Team member attending the judging session
  • April 1st @ 7:00pm Coaches Meeting (Invite will be sent to Coaches)
  • April 3rd @ 5:00 pm – Deadline to submit Robot Game Runs
  • April 10 – Opening Ceremony and Judging
  • April 11 –  Closing Ceremony and Awards
• Helpful links
  • Review video requirements prior to upload.
  • Remote Hub Coach’s Guide
  • Sign up for a free Zoom account
  • ORTOP’s Youtube Channel (Opening & Closing Ceremonies)
  • Judging Team Information Form

Opening ceremony premieres 8:30am

• Teams will be able to watch the Opening Ceremony at any point after the premiere; there is no need to watch this live.

Judging: Saturday, April 10

• Each Team will be assigned a 30 minute Judging session Link, scheduled for sometime between 9:00 am-4:00 pm. All categories of judging will be covered in a single session.  No sessions will be scheduled between 12-1pm so Judges can take a lunch break. Teams should plan to arrive 10 minutes ahead of their scheduled time.
• Judging sessions will be hosted on Zoom.  Sign up for a free Zoom account if you don’t already have one. Your team does not need to be in the same place for judging, but each student or group of students, as well as both coaches, need to have a free Zoom account. For security purposes and to coordinate the judging panels, all participants will need to pre-register for their assigned judging session.
• Each team will receive an individual Zoom link for their judging session by April 2, 2021 as long as their information has been received by ORTOP..
  • Use this form to provide your team’s zoom accounts to assign your team to a breakout room. This form is due on March 20th along with your Team Roster and Practice Runs. We cannot assign your team members to a session without them being registered ahead of time. 
  • In previous years, family & friends of Teams have been invited to observe the Innovation Project judging. Unfortunately, the changes in format now make this impossible. Only the Team’s two registered Coaches may attend.
• Materials required for your judging session should be uploaded via the Remote Hub. All file names should include your Team number. This may include some or all of the following:
  • Images, video, pdfs or slides for your team’s Innovation Project presentation
  • The code for your team’s Robot Game program(s). This can be a pdf downloaded from the software or the source code itself.
  • The Coach Mentor Award Nomination form
• Teams may choose to pre-record their project presentation.  This is not a requirement.  If your presentation is pre-recorded, it must be uploaded to the Remote Hub. A member of the judging team will help show the video during your session.
• New this year is the Coach/Mentor Award, which goes to the coach or mentor whose leadership and guidance is clearly evident and best exemplifies the FIRST Core Values. Don’t forget to have team members submit their nominations. 
• NOTE: If your team is competing on April 3 for the Global Innovation Award, you will receive separate instructions.

Closing ceremony: Sunday April 11th @ 5:00 pm

• All of the Teams who competed in Qualifying Tournaments will be recognized for their efforts at a Closing Ceremony on Sunday, April 11th @ 5 pm. This event will be live streamed on ORTOP’s Youtube Channel and can be watched by anyone with internet access. Share this link with your families and friends!!
• The award winners for all tournaments of judged awards will be announced during a single closing ceremony.  This recording will be time stamped so you can reference specific awards and acknowledgments.  We also hope to show a highlight reel of some of our favorite Robot Game videos.
• Advancements to the Intel Oregon FIRST LEGO League State Championship will be announced at the end of the Closing Ceremony from the Qualifying Tournaments.

If additional help is needed, email help-desk@ortop.org or message @help-desk via ORTOP’s Discord channel. Don’t forget to read the rules in order to get access to the Discord! Bring your Gracious Professionalism as we work out the kinks and reconnect with each other after a long year!