2016-2017 Email Blast #3

Louisiana FIRST Tech Challenge Coaches,

  1. Registration update
  2. Qualifier schedule
  3. Qualifier hosting (deadline)
  4. Qualifier fee (deadline)
  5. Scrimmages
  6. Referee note
  7. FTC Forum

  1. Registration update

We are up to 25 teams registered in Louisiana with one or two more expected.  It’s exciting to see us grow from last year.  The FIRST Team Grants are still being processed, if you haven’t applied yet or if you know someone who might start a team with the help of a grant:

http://info.firstinspires.org/firsttechchallengegrant-0


  1. Qualifier Schedule

We’re looking at having two Qualifying Tournaments to qualify teams for the Regional (State) Championship.  The proposed schedule looks like this:

Qualifier 1: December 3

Qualifier 2: February 11

Regional Championship: March 4

The plan right now is to have both Qualifiers open to all teams for a single tournament fee of $200.  Teams may attend one or two Qualifiers for the one fee.  This may make the Qualifiers large, requiring more volunteers, but it gives teams the most experience.  The tournament fees will go to FIRST Louisiana-Mississippi and be used to pay for the fields and the costs of holding the events including awards (!), supplies, printing, venue costs, volunteer hospitality, judge and volunteer shirts, electrical, A/V, equipment rental, DJ, …

We will offer the optional Promote Award, and sophomores and juniors should be considered for the Dean’s List Award.

There will be a Regional registration cost of $250 for the 20 teams that advance.  Advancement will use the FTC standard advancement criteria in the Game Manual Part 1 (see Section 4.8).


  1. Qualifier hosting

We appreciate the interest teams have shown in hosting Qualifiers.  Please check your venue for those dates above and let us know if you’d like to host.  We’ll work together to recruit and train the competition volunteers and judges.  If we have a choice of venues, we may use location, space, and any local volunteer pool like a university or corporation to decide.  Our teams are largely clustered in Baton Rouge and New Orleans with some outliers.

For some info on the space requirements for the Qualifiers, you can refer to the FTC Tournament Guide on the FIRST website: http://www.firstinspires.org/sites/default/files/uploads/resource_library/ftc/tournament-guide.pdf

Please respond by October 8.


  1. Qualifier fees and registration

Qualifier tournament fees will be paid to FIRST Louisiana Mississippi, Inc.  We need to order awards for a December Qualifier by the end of October, so please use the attached form and plan to have your $200 Qualifier fee received by October 25 (the address is on the form).

FIRST LA-MS. Inc. is an IRS 501(c)(3) non-profit.  If your school needs a copy of their W9 form, we can get that to you.

Note: If you applied for the CLECO grant, please wait for that to be confirmed, I’m waiting to hear back from them.


  1. Scrimmages

We’d like to have scrimmage opportunities in November and January to complement the Qualifiers.  It would be great if we could find two hosts, one each in New Orleans and the Baton Rouge area, for half-day scrimmages similar to last year’s league meets on Friday evenings or Saturdays.  We have two fields and field sets so we can lend those out to the scrimmage hosts for those weekends.

If you’re willing to coordinate scrimmages in your area or just host one, let us know and we’ll get that rolling.


  1. An update from your Referee, Michael Belanger

Teams, I gave some of you the wrong information at the Kickoff Event.
I told some of you that you could pick up any particle regardless of color. This is not true. You can pick up particles that are YOUR COLOR.
In addition, please be aware that yellow cards and red cards are a part of the penalty system this year. Some penalties require that a card be given, so please do not do anything to induce penalties especially those penalties.


  1. FTC Game Forum

The FTC Game Forum opened on September 23rd, and teams from all over are already posting some great game and technical questions. The FTC Forum is a great source of information (especially for rookie teams), and as far as the game rules are concerned, the FTC Forum is the only official source for clarifications and rulings that aren’t already covered in the game manuals. Your Team’s Username and Password for the Forums (only needed if you want/need to post) can be found on the bottom right-hand corner of your teams Dashboard page on the FIRST website. The FTC game and technical forums can be found here: http://ftcforum.usfirst.org/forum.php

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