Top 5 questions from coaches this week – 9/9
- Where do I register for a tournament? I see the “Event Application” section in the FIRST registration TIMS site but there are no events listed…
- NorCal FLL does not use the FIRST system for Tournament events
- Tournament registration will open in October but there are 2 steps that you have to do ahead (as a prerequisite) of registering… More info here.
- The list of confirmed/mostly confirmed qualifier tournaments for 2015 season is here
- [and relatedly] I want to register for tournament “A” – how do I do that?
- When your team is eligible to register and registration opens, the coach (or their designee) will be able to select 3 tournaments within the team’s district and then be assigned by a simple system to one of those 3 choices. If tournament “A”, is in your district and isn’t filled by the time you go in to choose your tournament selections, then you will be given your choice.
- More information about the overall process is posted here
- What is my team’s district? [and relatedly, can I move districts?]
- The team is assigned a district based solely on the team’s home city. District definitions are posted here.
- You can see your district from the Team List
- Teams can only move districts for qualifier tournament registration for 1 reason: The district that your team is in has no additional tournament space
- Is the FLL season done after the team attends a November qualifier tournament? [and relatedly, can my team attend more than 1 qualifier tournament]
- There are 4 types of FLL Events:
- Community / Scrimmage events – organized locally and may or may not follow regional and FLL rules/standards
- FLL Qualifier Tournaments (QT) – managed by FLL Partner in a region and required to follow regional and FLL rules/standards
- FLL Championship Tournaments (CT) – similar to QTs but teams must advance from QT based on FLL defined criteria and are generally larger events
- FLL Post-Season Festivals / Invitationals / Opens – similar or larger to CT but generally a lottery is held to determine which FLL regions are invited. In the best case, we would be able to send 1 team to at least 1 of these post-season events.
- So, if a team attends a QT and does not advance to a CT, their official FLL season is over. [Advancement from one level to the next one is defined in #2 in Judging FAQ]
- In NorCal, we “race” to find willing people to organize sufficient QTs to allow all teams exactly 1 slot at a tournament. There is zero opportunity for a team to participate in more than 1 QT. You can help – Quick guide
- There are 4 types of FLL Events:
- Our team is looking for… a mentor/scrimmage/challenge table?
- If your team is looking for a mentor, the best is to find a local FRC or FTC team and reach out to them.
- If your team is looking for a scrimmage, “open” scrimmages are rare events here in NorCal – most communities allow on their “local teams” to attend. The open scrimmages will get posted on this site under the Events area starting late in September. You can help – by organizing a scrimmage
- If your team is looking for a challenge table, there have been several posted here – looked under “Activity” or “Members“. We do not recommend portable/foldable or similar ones (like the “Stow and Go” one on the usfirst.org site) – it becomes unusable quickly other than for demos. It is not hard to build one – instructions here.