Advancing to Championship

[pm29]

This is our first time advancing. Is the Championship tournament run similar to the Qualifier tournaments? Do we need to do anything new? Can we continue to add programs between now and then?

[jlrwi]

There is some variation between regions, but generally you can continue working on your project, robot, and core values to strengthen them for the next round. There is no institutional memory of what your team did in a tournament - you could come back with an entirely different project and a new robot. Here in Wisconsin, all the tournament levels are run the same way.

[Tim Carey]

Congratulations! My advice would be to look at the rubrics you get back from the judges and see what you can do to improve any areas where you were marked down. This should help you in the judging areas. For your robot game, look at how you could combine missions, increase speed (while the robot is running a mission or in changing attachments, etc. in Home), or increase robot accuracy. Hopefully your team saw some things at your qualifier event that they could adapt and use. If you've advanced, then you're already doing a lot of great things. Just see how you can improve them.

[jdamp]

If we have some kids leave between regional/state tournaments, can we add new kids to the roster?

[timdavid]

If we have some kids leave between regional/state tournaments, can we add new kids to the roster?

What's your team size and how many kids are leaving the team? It is allowed to compete with a team of only two kids. Teams don't typically add new members between tournaments, but I don't know if there is actually a rule against it. You may wish to check with your regional FLL partner to get their view point if this is something you really wish to pursue.

When I was coaching, I did have a team that lost one team member between the regional and state tournament, but that only decreased the team size from 8 to 7, so it did not have a large impact on the team overall.

[philso]

Have your team measure the repeatability of the robot game missions by running each one 5, 10 or 20 times. If they are completely successful less than 90% of the time, analyze what is causing the missions to not be successful and make the neccessary changes.

Have the team practice the pit stops (attachment changeovers) to improve the consistency, (possibly) reduce the time taken and improve the Technician's confidence. It may be of benefit to change which Technician does each task in the changeover sequences.

Use the time before the Regional or State Championship to get input from more experts relevant to your team's project. If they have not already done so, this is also an opportunity for your team to share their solution with more audiences that are affected by, can benefit from and/or can implement your team's solution.