Hello Teams and Volunteers,
This is the tenth in the continuing series of Pennsylvania FIRST Robotics emails. Hopefully you received the last email #9 highlighting that Qualifier Registration Opens Oct 1st and have taken action to register for Pennsylvania FIRST Tech Challenge events. As always, previous emails can be found on our website in the COMMUNICATION Archives.
https://www.ftcpenn.org/communications
As of this morning we have 127 Teams that are officially Registered with FIRST Inspires for this 2023-2024 CENTERSTAGE Season. There are an additional 8 potential Rookie teams in the process of registering as well. We expect more teams to Register in the coming weeks and to exceed last season’s PA team total.
Of the 127 teams, only 104 have Registered for one or more of our Pennsylvania events, so there is still time and plenty of space to get your teams into either a workshop, scrimmage or qualification tournament. Please go to our Event page to view the schedule. Note that we have retained full functionality for tracking the team status for each individual event with regards to Registered (P1) and Waitlist status (P2-P6).
https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events/2023-2024-season
Event Registration selection guidance:
For unregistered teams, you must open the individual event to determine how many and which teams already occupy slots. This will provide you guidance to enhance your decisions for which events you may want to join and register. Open each individual event and note that they are slated for either 18, 24, 30 or 36 teams as indicated by the number of entries allotted for each event in the Registered Teams section of the page. The Waitlist section lists the teams by preference (P2-P6), date and timestamp order. Approximately four (4) weeks before a particular event, we will invite teams to Register for any open slots for that event, in the exact order indicated in the Waitlist. Please see the attached “Waitlist Invitation Schedule” for invitation dates.
Waitlist Invitation Schedule 2023-24 Season
At the bottom of the Event page is an Advancement section. This indicates how many teams we expect to advance from the event to the State Championship. Note that this is subject to change based on how many teams actually compete at the individual event. We expect to hold a 36 team State Championship, location now being determined. More to come.
Added Events:
Please note that another Scrimmage was added to the existing schedule: 2023-11-18 Longhorn Roundup Scrimmage (Kennett Square). We added this Team Powered scrimmage due to the overwhelming interest in joining the 2023-11-04 Ramp Riot Scrimmage (Ambler). If you are on the Waitlist for Ramp Riot, this provides an alternate opportunity for your team. If you are already registered for Ramp Riot and want to switch or even join this new scrimmage too, please be sure to Register on our registration page and provide an Update. We are also negotiating to add one more scrimmage in Pittsburgh in the mid-January 2024 time frame. TBD
Event Registration
Prior to registering, please carefully read the Event Participation Policy:
https://www.ftcpenn.org/event-registration/event-participation-policy
For this season it may be possible for Out-of-State teams to compete in PA, however in our registration process, PA teams are given preference and priority over out-of-state teams. Also, per Game Manual 1 section 6.1 Eligibility for Advancement – Teams are only eligible to advance from events within their Home Region. Teams may choose to compete at Tournaments outside of their Home Region, however, do so for the opportunity of additional gameplay and to compete with other teams from outside of their area. Teams may NOT advance from Tournaments outside of their Home Region.
Please read the Processing Event Registration Requests section and let us know if you have any questions.
https://www.ftcpenn.org/event-registration/processing-event-registration-requests
Then follow the instructions on our Event Registration page and associated form.
https://www.ftcpenn.org/event-registration
Additional:
Call for Volunteers! – Lots of opportunities for fun and we need YOU to make this season a success for our students. Please go to the email archive “FTC PA 2023-24 Season Blast #8 – Volunteering for FTC PA Season Events” for detailed information on how to participate and join our team.
https://www.ftcpenn.org/communications
FIRST® Tech Challenge Game Q&A Forum in open! Every registered FIRST Tech Challenge team is granted one account to ask questions and receive official answers from our game design committee through the game Q&A forum. A code for each team is loaded into the team’s dashboard.
https://ftc-qa.firstinspires.org/
Team Resources, FIRST Tech Challenge Documentation – Invaluable to all teams competing this season. Please see the mountain of detailed documentation that will enhance your field competitiveness!
https://ftc-docs.firstinspires.org/en/latest/
Key Resources such as Game Manuals, have been updated and released as of Oct 4th (GM1) and Oct 11th (GM2). This was communicated in previous Team Email Blasts from FIRST. The FIRST Tech Challenge Software Development Kit (SDK) has also been released.
https://www.firstinspires.org/resource-library/ftc/game-and-season-info
That’s all for now. We will be communicating more frequently as the season unfolds.
All the best,
Tom and the FTC PA Team!
Pennsylvania FIRST® Robotics
FIRST Tech Challenge® Program Delivery Partner
phone: (302) 383-9925
email: ftc@pennfirst.org
Website: www.FTCPenn.org