Thursday, November 11, 2010

Big Changes in FLL this year!

Hello teams,

As we approach our FLL tournament season I just wanted to touch base regarding a few major changes that FLL is going through this year. They are:
1) Pilot change in judging values (the BIG one)
Please remember that Ontario is one of a few regions that has been chosen to be a part of the FLL Judging Pilot. We are very excited about this opportunity and welcome any feedback (good and bad) you may have regarding anything to do with the pilot. For a recap of these major changes please see my email to the coach of your team for more info or email me directly. We're not allowed to post them on a website.
2) Robot strategy change (from previous years)
One major change from previous years that we thought we should point out is that there is no more "stray objects" rule. Please note Rule 18, 22, and 23 in the attached "Rules" document. Some points to consider as a result:
  • If your robot leaves base with an object and loses control of it, you don't get it back and you can't ask the ref to move it for you. IT STAYS WHERE IT IS.
  • If you pick up your robot outside of base while it is still in control of the object you get a touch penalty for the robot touch but you would get the robot and object back in base.
  • If you are retrieving an object to base and lose control of the object, it stays where it is.
  • If you pick up your robot while it is retrieving an object you get a touch penalty AND lose the object (ref removes it from the table).
Questions regarding Judging can go to either me or Calum Tsang (our Provincial Judge Advisor) at tsangc@mie.utoronto.ca.

Questions regarding Reffing can go to either me or Ian Mackenzie (our Provincial Head Ref) at ian.e.mackenzie@gmail.com.

Also, I wanted to let you all know that there will be another practice tournament being held in Kingston - these practice tournaments are a great opportunity for your team. I strongly recommend getting to one if you are able. If you are interested in the Kingston tournament, there is more information at http://kbotics.ca/fll/.

Thanks,

Dave