Cactus Wren Results, Pictures & Software Updates

Happy Thanksgiving to all our teams, coaches, mentors & volunteers! We're so thankful for all of you!

Competition Software Update from Head FTA Zach

Make sure your team is ready to compete by performing a field inspection at-home! First, power on your robot and connect your driver station. On the driver station app, tap the three dots in the upper-right hand corner of your phone and select self-inspect. Make sure that all of the fields are green and you are running at least version 7.0 of the FTC Driver Station app and FTC Robot Controller app. If anything is out-of-date, you can follow these links for updating the device:

REV Control Hub & Driver Hub Firmware	REV Robotics Docs
REV Control Hub Operating System	REV Robotics Docs
REV Control Hub Robot Controller App	REV Robotics Docs
REV Driver Hub Operating System & Driver Station App	REV Robotics Docs
FTC Apps on Android Phones	GitHub Link

Note that the apps are no longer available from the Google Play Store. Instead, teams should use the REV Robotics Hardware Client to install the latest app updates for the Android phones. Alternatively, teams who program their robot using Android Studio should download the latest version of the SDK from GitHub and copy their "TeamCode" folder to the new version before deploying. If you have any questions, please reach out to Zach, our Arizona Lead FTA. He will also be at Saguaro Blossom to assist teams. 

Championship Update

As you've probably heard, the FIRST World Championship will be one single culminating event in Houston, TX in April. Each FIRST Tech Challenge region will advance two teams - the Inspire Award Winner and the Captain of the Winning Alliance - from the region championship events. Please read more information on Ken's Blog here. 

Reminders

This year we will have one Interview-only event for Arizona Dean's List February 1-3, 2022. Each team may nominate up to two outstanding 10th and 11th graders for the FIRST Dean's List. Each of the nominees will be interviewed remotely in February, and the Finalists will be announced at the Arizona Championship February 19. The deadline to nominate for the FIRST Dean's List is January 15, 2022. That may seem a long way off, but with the upcoming holiday breaks, it will be here before you know it! Please see the Dean's List guide (link to the right) for more information on nominating your deserving students. 

Please also remember that payment for qualifiers is due by December 3 (next Friday!) We need your payment or PO request by then. Communication is key! Please let us know your payment status by this deadline, thanks. 

Cactus Wren Pictures

We had a blast at the Cactus Wren Qualifier! You can view the pictures taken by the CocoNuts and the Knights of the Lab Table HERE. 

Cactus Wren Results

Congrats to all the teams that competed at the Cactus Wren Qualifier, and a special thank you to Team 8081 Knights of the Lab Table for hosting! It was amazing to see the growth in the game play in just this first event. We can't wait to see how your teams and robots grow throughout the season. Congrats also to the first five teams to advance to the Arizona Championship! You can see the Championship roster by clicking the link to the right and the complete event results (including match scores and rankings) on the official FIRST Tech Challenge event results page (link to the right). 

• Inspire Award: 12767, Catholic Master Builders
• Winning Alliance: 12676, Catholic Master Builders & 14835, Tie-Dye Samurai
• Finalist Alliance: 10111, Herberger Javalinas & 2844, Valley X Robotics
• Think Award: 11980, Team Viper
• Connect Award: 10369, Robosapiens
• Innovate Award sponsored by Raytheon: 2844, Valley X Robotics
• Control Award sponsored by Arm, Inc: 14835, Tie-Dye Samurai
• Motivate Award: 14254, Trivium Knight Lights
• Design Award: 12901, Cobra Commanders
• Judges' Choice Award: 15477, Robo-Assemblers