Indiana FIRST LEGO League: Important Coach Update

Hello FIN Community,
The following message was shared with our FIRST LEGO League Coaches via Carol Dostal. It includes updates regarding the 2020-2021 FIRST LEGO League Season.
Please see below for more details.
————————-
Hello Coaches, 
In this update please find:

 1) Tournament Season Mission; Changes to help our teams! (review whether you have registered your team to participate this season or not)

 2) Joint 2020 FIRST LEGO League Program Leadership; new 2021 leadership

 3) NEW Tournament Dates: Season 1 and Season 2 Championship Groups

 4) Postponed QT registration dates and QT Registration Application Procedures: Making Decisions for Your Team

 5) Season 1 and Season 2 Championship Groups: Judging and Robot Game Process Explanations 

6) RSVP for FLL Community Q&A Session on 10-14-20 at 5pm ET – Click Here

 
——————————————————————————

1) Tournament Season Mission

Our mission is to give as many Hoosier students as possible the opportunity to participate in the FIRS​T LEGO League Challenge program this year. This includes supporting teams who expected the season qualifying tournaments to take place in November, in addition to adjusting the season timeline in order to address the unprecedented situation we’re in today and providing a second season for teams who are unable to compete in November. 
————————————————

2) Joint 2020 FIRST LEGO League Program Leadership; new 2021 leadership

​I (Carol) am pleased to announce that the organization which many of you may know from other FIRST programs; FIRST in Indiana (FIN) under the leadership of Renee Becker-Blau and her great staff including Program Director Chris Osborne, are now collaborating jointly with Purdue Fort Wayne’s Program Delivery Partner, Carol Dostal, through the end of 2020. In the spring of 2021, Carol will be retiring from Purdue Fort Wayne (but not from volunteering/involvement with FIRST programs) and so PFW has made the decision to conclude their official role as the program leader for FIRST LEGO League Challenge and FIN will be taking on the new Program Leadership role in 2021. FIN’s staff have a breadth of experience, involvement in all other FIRST programs in Indiana, and their sheer enthusiasm and love for FIRST will no doubt result in many great benefits to our statewide FIRST LEGO League program.
—————————————————–

3) New Tournament Dates: Season 1 and Season 2 Championship Groups

Tournament Dates: All Indiana tournaments will be remote events; CLICK HERE for a document showing the new Indiana tournament structure for the RePlay competition season. 
 
Season 1 Championship Group:
IUN Nov. 21; capacity 12
USI Nov. 21; capacity: 12
Purdue Nov. 21; capacity12
Purdue FW Indiana Championship: Dec. 12; 24 teams
Season 2 Championship Group:
GEARS/ETHOS Jan. 23; capacity 12
Indy South Jan. 23; capacity 12
NCI/E3 Robotics Jan. 30; capacity 12
FIN Indiana Championship: Feb date TBA; 24 teams
—————————————-

4). Postponed Qualifying Tournament Registration Application Dates:

NEW DATES: October 19 at 8:00 AM (Eastern) to October 21 5:00 PM (Eastern)
Where to apply to an event? On the Purdue Fort Wayne  Indiana Championship website at: www.etcs.pfw.edu/fll
QT Application Procedures:
a) TEAM DECIDES: Season 1 Championship Group or Season 2 Championship Group
b) TEAM DECIDES: Once season is decided; coach ranks the tournaments within that season understanding that location is not a factor this year due to remote competitions
Other usual application procedures: 
c) Teams use their official FLL # for log in and password through the link at the PFW Championship website: www.etcs.pfw.edu/fll
DO NOT APPLY THROUGH YOUR FIRST DASHBOARD; DO NOT USE YOUR FIRST PASSWORD
 
d) Coach completes the form providing team information: team name and official FIRST LEGO League number, coach 1 name and contact, coach 2 name and contact, organization (if applicable), county, gender count, name of team members
e) WARNING about Submission: Important! once the coach submits their team application, the team # is deleted from the application system and coach cannot get back in for changes. 
 
f) Coach will receive a page after application submission, and it will show what they entered. This page should be printed or saved for your records.
g) Coach waits for tournament assignment email: After the application time-period concludes team(s) will be assigned a tournament which is announced in a confirmation email to coaches from their Indiana PDP
These directions will be posted on the Purdue Fort Wayne Indiana Championship website under Qualifying Tournament Application.

Important considerations: 

We need 24 teams in season 1 to make this work! 
Official Championship Tournaments must have 24 teams. Should 24 teams not select Season 1 for their Championship Group; there is a possibility that there will be qualifiers during season 1 but those who advance will have to compete in the Season 2 Championship thereby making that championship more competitive. Changes like this would be announced during the tournament assignment email confirmation process.
——————————————————–

5) Season 1 and Season 2 Championship Groups: same program components but slightly different method of teams delivering their end products

 
CLICK HERE to see a document with a table showing the differences in how the teams will “deliver” their program components to tournaments and how judges/refs. interaction will take place. Note that in Season 1 there are a) less recorded videos submitted; 2) no use of the Remote Event Hub (it will not be available yet); 3) more documents allowed in the place of the videos; 4) responsibility of the coach to provide the link(s) to the 3 robot game videos for refs to review.
——————————————————–

6) Join our Leadership Listening Session next Wednesday! 

———————————————————
​
We hope this email provides the information you need to consider registering for competitions this year and/or how the tournaments will be implemented if you are registered to participate at this time.
For questions about the tournament structure and application procedure please contact Carol Dostal.
High Fives from your 2020 Indiana Program Delivery Co-Partners!
 
Carol Dostal, Purdue Fort Wayne, dostalc@pfw.edu
Renee Becker-Blau, FIRST in Indiana (FIN), rbeckerblau@firstindianarobotics.org 
Chris Osborne, FIRST in Indiana (FIN), cosborne@firstindianarobotics.org 

Related Posts