We're so Thankful for all our coaches, mentors, teams and volunteers! Have a safe, festive, relaxing Thanksgiving holiday!
New Qualifying Tournament!
Due to high demand for competition spots in January and February, we're adding another qualifying tournament January 25, 2020 at Desert Mountain High School in Scottsdale! This event is limited to 16 teams. Priority will be given to teams that currently only have 1 or 2 events. Teams will be allowed to play this event as a 4th play if there's space.
Payment for Arizona Qualifying Tournaments is due TOMORROW November 20. Failure to meet this deadline will result in a $50 late payment fee. Teams can now pay by credit card online using the link to the right.
Be sure your team name is EXACTLY how you want it displayed in your FIRST Dashboard. The scoring software pulls the team names directly from FIRST. They are not manually entered into the system and cannot be updated by hand.
Check the previous Blog posts for tips on preparing your team for competition, what to bring, and what to expect when you get there.
Gilbert Qualifier Results
Congrats to all the teams that competed in the second event of the season! Thank you to Team 8081 Knights of the Lab Table for putting on such an awesome event! Inspire Award: 16684, Cosmic Voltage Winning Alliance: 8995, Jaegers & 4216 RISE of Hephaestus & 2844, Valley X Finalist Alliance: 13968, Herberger Howlers & 12767, Catholic Master Builders & 14855 Shamrocks Think Award: 7716, Knight Tech Robotics Connect Award: 4216 RISE of Hephaestus Collins Aerospace Innovate Award: 201, BroncoBotics Design Award: 8995, Jaegers Motivate Award: 14436, Roaring Robotics Control Award: 12767, Catholic Master Builders Judges Award: 14835, Robo-Warriors Teams Advancing to the Arizona Championship: 16684, Cosmic Voltage
AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO ALL TEAMS... Please read this entire message and ALL Blog posts!
Attention all Arizona FIRST Teams, and teams competing in Arizona events: As the SKYSTONE season gets underway in Arizona and across the World, we want to make sure all teams are acutely aware of key verbiage in the official FIRST Game Manual. Teams will not be eligible for certain awards, and may even be disqualified from game play for failure to adhere to the manual requirements. We believe in helping all teams be aware of key information and we post updates weekly in the blog as we see them occurring throughout the course of the season. Please pay close attention to the following rules, and ALL the rules in Game Manual Part 1 and 2. As always, thank you for everything you do and your continued Gracious Professionalism. ~Dave and Christine ~AZ Planning Committee Engineering Notebooks: The game manual is very specific and clear about the requirements necessary for a team's engineering notebook to be eligible for review. Teams that fail to follow these recommendations will lose the opportunity to be eligible for most judged awards. Please review section 9 of Game Manual 1, paying specific attention to 9.2.4 (see below). 9.2.4 Engineering Notebook Requirements
Teams may not submit more than two notebooks at a competition.
The team number must appear on the outside front cover of the engineering notebook. Engineering notebooks will NOT be considered without this information.
Please be sure to read Game Manual Part 1, section 9 for more information on Judging and visit the FIRST Tech Challenge Resources page to help your team prepare for competition.
Alliance Markers:Game Manual 2 discusses the importance of teams supplying their own markers to help all officials and spectators follow the team's alliance positions. The specific game rules are found in section 7.3 - Robot Rules (see below).
<RG06>Alliance Marker: Robots must include a Team supplied, Alliance specific marker on two opposite sides of the Robot to easily identify which Alliance a Robot is assigned to. The Alliance Marker must be displayed on the same side of the robot as the Team Number, within a 3" distance of the number. The Alliance Marker must be visible to the Referees during a match.
The Red Alliance Marker must be a solid red square, approximately 2.5" x 2.5" (6.35 cm x 6.35 cm) +/- 0.25" (0.64 cm).
The Blue Alliance Marker must be a solid blue circle, approximately 2.5" (6.35 cm) +/- 0.25" (0.64 cm) in diameter.
The Alliance Marker must be robust enough to withstand the rigors of Match play. Example robust materials include: Alliance Marker template printed and laminated; mounted on poly carbonate sheet, wood panel, metal plate, etc.
Ranking Point Calculation: Ranking points have always been an area of confusion for teams, and this year with the new raking descriptions it really is confusing teams. Game Manual 1, section 4.8 discusses this in detail. Please review the information below.
4.8.1 Calculating Ranking
Teams at a tournament are ranked as follows:
Average Ranking Points; highest to lowest
Average TieBreaker Points; highest to lowest
Highest Match Score
Random Electronic Draw
All teams are ranked based on the same number of Qualification Matches. Teams may be required to play a Surrogate Match, which is an extra match marked by an asterisk on the Match schedule. The added Surrogate Match does not count towards their standings during the tournament.
At the end of the Match, Ranking Points and TieBreaker Points are awarded:
Average Ranking Points are calculated by adding the Ranking Points (2 for a win, 1 for a tie, 0 for a loss, disqualification or no-show) for each Match and dividing by the total number of Matches played.
Average TieBreaker Points are calculated by adding the TieBreaker Points for each match, then subtracting the lowest scoring Match (5-6 Matches, one Match is subtracted; 7 or more, two are subtracted) and then dividing by the total number of Matches played minus the dropped Match. TieBreaker Points are awarded based on the following:
The number of TieBreaker Points assigned for each Match is that of the losing Alliance's score. Both Alliances receive the pre-penalized score of the losing Alliance as their TieBreaker Points.
If a Match ends in a tie, both Alliances receive the same number of TieBreaker Points, equal to the lowest pre-penalized score.
If a Team is disqualified or no-show, they receive zero (0) TieBreaker Points. This Match will not be subtracted as the lowest Match score and will count in the Team's rankings.
If both teams on an Alliance are disqualified, the winning Alliance Teams are awarded their own pre-penalized score as their TieBreaker Points for that Match.
OTHER REMINDERS:
Payment for Arizona Qualifying Tournaments is due by November 20. Failure to meet this deadline will result in a $50 late payment fee. Teams can now pay by credit card online using the link to the right.
Be sure your team name is EXACTLY how you want it displayed in your FIRST Dashboard. The scoring software pulls the team names directly from FIRST. They are not manually entered into the system and cannot be updated by hand.
Check the previous Blog posts for tips on preparing your team for competition, what to bring, and what to expect when you get there.
Deadline to nominate students for Dean's List for Tucson, Glendale, Downtown Phoenix & Central Phoenix qualifiers is THIS FRIDAY NOVEMBER 15 at 11:59 PM EST.
White Mountain Qualifier Results
Congrats to all the teams that competed in the first event of the season! Thank you to Team 8995 Jaegers Robotics for putting on such an awesome event! Inspire Award: 16265, ENIGMA Winning Alliance: 14814, MC^2 & 10369, Robosapiens Finalist Alliance: 13099, Circuit Breakers & 8081, Knights of the Lab Table Think Award: 8081, Knights of the Lab Table Connect Award: 12241, Panther Robotics Collins Aerospace Innovate Award: 10369, Robosapiens Design Award: 13099, Circuit Breakers Motivate Award: 10984, Beep Patrol Control Award: 12892, Juggerbots Judges Award: 11529, Navajo Code Writers Teams Advancing to the Arizona Championship: 16265, ENIGMA 14814, MC^2 8081, Knights of the Lab Table 10369, Robosapiens
Good Luck to all the teams competing at the Gilbert Qualifier this weekend!
We're excited to kickoff the Skystone season with our first qualifying tournament this weekend in Heber, AZ with our White Mountain Qualifier! Good luck to the 17 teams competing this weekend! ***NEW!***Teams can now pay tournament registration fees online via credit card by going to this link. Simply enter your team number and the amount your paying, then follow the prompts. ***Important!!** Be sure that your team name registered with FIRST is how you want it to appear in the scoring system. The score system pulls team information directly from the FIRST database. Please verify that it's correct prior to your first competition.***
Watch your email for links to the Live Stream. Similar to last year, we will stream as many events as we can. The links are usually created and sent out Friday night. Broadcasts usually get underway at opening ceremonies at about 10 am. Live streams will be posted to the blog for easy access.
Can't wait to find out which teams you're competing with? Check out the qualifying tournament rosters under Quick Links.
As usual, we'll post the results of each qualifier to the Blog. New this year, all official FIRST Tech Challenge events will have results posted to the FIRST website. The official results page will be here, but it's still under construction. Keep checking back as the season gets underway.
Don't forget about DEAN'S LIST! The deadline for nominating a student to the FIRST Dean's List for teams competing in the Jan. 7 Tucson, Jan. 14 Glendale, Jan. 14 Downtown Phoenix, and Jan. 21 Central Phoenix Qualifiers is Friday, November 15 at 11:59 PM eastern time.Please review previous blog posts and visit the FIRST Tech Challenge Dean's List page for more information on how to nominate your deserving students.
REMINDER - PAYMENT DEADLINES! Remember, ALL qualifying tournament entry fees are due by NOVEMBER 20. Please pay on time to avoid a $50 late payment fee. Teams must also be registered and paid with FIRST for the new season by their first qualifier. Teams that are not registered are ineligible to compete in official events!
Be sure to check last week's blogs for tips on preparing your robot and team for competition.
And of course, Good Luck, Have Fun, and May the Force be with your team as they compete! GO TEAMS! ROADS on MARS Challenge This new robotics challenge from NASA offers students in grades 3-12 the opportunity to tackle a mission to Mars! Teams will perform a Mars landing and a series of robotic missions on Mars. Three FREE Professional Development days will be offered by NAU for interested coaches:
November 16 - NAU North Phoenix Campus
January 4 - Coconino High School, Flagstaff
January 10 - Miami, AZ
January 11 - Tucson, AZ
The competition will be held May 2, 2020 at NAU. The winning team could win a trip to Kennedy Space Center in Florida to see the launch of the 2020 Mars Rover!
We encourage teams to reach out to schools that don't have robotics to start new teams, or to compete! For more information, check out the flyers posted under QUICK LINKS and contact Anne Hamlin at NAU.
Check out the latest videos from FIRST and Star Wars: Force for Change!
