The following describes the schedule for regional competitions, which usually span three days, either Thursday through Saturday or Friday through Sunday (the days listed below are for the former schedule).
The schedule at World Championships is slightly different to accommodate the greater number of teams, but the format is still the same.
Practice matches happen all day Thursday. This is also time for teams to install upgrades and do any last minute adjustments and fine tuning on their robots.
All day Friday and Saturday morning, teams play randomly-selected round robin qualification matches. Matches are an alliance of 3 teams versus another alliance of 3 teams – you might be allied with a team during one match, and play against them in the next. The results of the qualification matches are used to rank teams.
On Saturday right before lunch, the 8 top-ranked each pick two other teams to form an alliance which is permanent for the rest of the tournament.
Saturday afternoon, the 8 selected alliances begin a tournament to find out which alliance will be the winner. There are three rounds of competition: quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals – in each round, half the teams are eliminated.
At the end of Saturday is the awards ceremony. Awards are given for robot performance, robot design, and teams’ efforts in community involvement.
Weigh in and technical inspection must be completed as soon as possible on the robot at the first competition attended by the team. We need to establish if we are within weight limits and that we comply with all safety and technical standards to compete.
Pit crew and drive team have to arrive by 7:45 AM on Thursday morning of the competition to set up the pit, prepare the robot for inspection, and fine tune the robot. Getting the robot into practice matches is critical to our success because it allows the drivers to get used to the competition field.
For all competitions, the team must check in at the Pit Administration desk with hard copies of the team roster from the FIRST team registration dashboard and signed FIRST Consent and Release Forms.
Scouts should also use practice sessions as a time to collect preliminary data on other teams. Some scouts should interview teams in their pits to get information about their robots.
The pit area should be set up in a neat and organized fashion so tools and equipment are easy to access and can be found quickly. Spare parts should be stored away neatly and a manifest with parts and storage locations should be kept. Power cords and power strips should be located in easily accessible locations that do not pose tripping hazards. Long spans of cord over paths should be completely taped down. Each pit area is marked for square footage and we will need to stay within those bounds. Any team signs or banners should be hung safely in accordance to venue/FIRST restrictions and allow visibility for team members and other teams. We want to be found and we want to be seen.
Team documentation and promotional materials should also be on display on the side to garner interest from other teams, support for our sponsors, and to help showcase the efforts of the team to judges.
Pit areas should be maintained to be clean, neat, and organized as originally set up. Like an emergency room or race team’s pit area, everything has a place and an order to allow for fast response to immediate need repairs and modifications. All shop safety rules apply when in the pits and on the field.
A wrap up meeting should also be held to align and sync the team for the next day’s actions and to review what did and did not go well during the day.
Everyone on the team should attend the opening and closing awards ceremonies.
The qualification matches will run from Friday morning to Saturday noon.
The team should complete the pre-match checklist before each match, and do a full-functional check before and after each match.
The team should continue to scout for strong team alliances and to support the creation of winning strategies.
After each match, the drive team should collect the match recording from the media team and do a debrief.
The Strategy Lead should deliver the proposed strategy to the drive team approximately 6-8 matches ahead of time. At 5-6 matches, the Strategy Lead and drive team should meet with our alliance partners and agree on a final strategy. This timing may need to be adapted due to match schedule.
A wrap up meeting should be held to align and sync the team for the next day’s actions and to review what did and did not go well during the day.
The scouting and strategy team will meet Friday night to draft pick lists for alliance selection.
Everyone on the team should attend the opening and closing awards ceremonies.
Scouting should focus on making sure that our pick lists are correct and fine tuning them as needed.
On Saturday right before lunch, the 8 top-ranked teams each pick two other teams to form an alliance which is permanent for the rest of the tournament. The picking order is “serpentine:” the #1 ranked team picks their first alliance partner, then the #2 ranked team picks their first partner, etc on down until #8. Then, #8 gets the first selection for their second partner, and the picking proceeds back up the list to #1.
The final matches and awards ceremony will be held Saturday afternoon.
The team should pay special attention to battery use so that we have enough charged batteries to last us through the eliminations.
A wrap up meeting should be held to review what did and did not go well during the competition and to plan for any actions that must occur for the next competition.