Thank you and welcome to the 2021 season! We are excited to see what you and your team have accomplished this season. While we wish we could see you all in person for traditional events, we are happy to be able to continue to provide engaging STEM opportunities for teams while staying safe. We want to provide you with resources in preparing for your events and to provide clarification for some items to ensure a smooth and enjoyable experience this season.

On FIRST’s website, each event reflects a 7-day period.  Matches DO NOT need to be done all in one day, however, once your team begins an official match, it must be played to the end (even if your robot malfunctions!). Teams may also intersperse official matches with practice matches. While each event is listed for one week, teams will have to submit scores by 5 pm the Saturday of each event for their robot performance runs. Please do not wait until the last minute to upload your scores, or you may miss the window! Practice matches may be played any time using the FTC scoring page. While videos are not required in order to compete, we would like to showcase what students have accomplished this season. If your team would like us to showcase your robot, make sure you can upload videos or team pictures to your league’s Dropbox folder.  You will receive this link from your League Manager and you do not need to create a Dropbox account to use this service.  As a reminder, League Meet #0 is a practice meet. 

 

Review your assignments here.

 

League Readiness Checklist:

• Are all team members registered on your team?
  • While we are not attending in person, teams are still required to have all members complete their consent and release forms for this season.
• Make sure you have what you need to build a field.
  • Order half fields from AndyMark or
  • Follow this budget field build.
  • Note: You can not make your own wobble goals and rings
• Review the field scoring guide, the self-scoring guide, and review quiz
• Designate a student to submit scores and other written awards
  • Review the Team Scoring Guide to learn how to do this.
  • You must be listed as either Lead Coach 1 or 2 in order to do this.
• For more tutorials on remote gameplay visit here.
• Teams will use the FSS to submit their robot scores and upload needed materials for judging. We will not have a need for the Remote Hub Platform. 
• Check which League you are in. There will be 6 leagues.
• Submit all non-robot run specific items before their respective due dates. This is for league tournaments and State Championships only.
  • Dean’s List – March 15th. See this guide for more information.
• Sign up for Discord. We will use this to assist your team and to create community during the season.
• Sign up for Zoom. We may use this to assist your team and we will be using this for judging later in the season.
• If additional help is needed, email help-desk@ortop.org or message @help-desk via ORTOP’s Discord channel

 

Advancement

• How will teams advance to the qualifying tournament?
  • All teams will advance to the qualifying tournament.
  • Once scores have been published from each meet and tournament, teams will be able to view scores here https://ftc-events.firstinspires.org/
  • We will send a confirmation email to teams as they advance
• Who will advance to the State Championship?
  • Close or roughly 50% of teams of teams will advance from the league tournament as per section 6 game manual #1.

 

We will continue to send information as the season progresses.  If your team is having trouble getting your robot running, please request support using the Discord channel.  There are other teams that would be willing to support you if you reach out.