FIRST Robotics Competition Blog

So much FIRST Championship news!*

Updated Map

Here’s the 2022 FIRST Championship map showing which locations are assigned to FIRST Championship Houston and which to FIRST Championship Detroit. Most location assignments are the same as they were in 2020; Israel has been switched to Detroit in 2022. This accommodation is being made because of the extremely high cost of travel for teams from Israel during the Passover holiday which falls during the Houston event this season. In 2023, Israel will be assigned to their normal location.

Championship Eligibility

Here’s the updated Championship eligibility criteria. You will note that rookies are now eligible for the waitlist. We made this change primarily because the rookie/veteran split when it came to the waitlist seemed like an artificial divide. Also, we want to increase our chances of having full Championships in 2022, given the uncertainties of travel with the pandemic. Full Championships are fun Championships, and we want to make sure lots of students have a chance to experience this inspirational event! As we added Rookies, we also needed to change the math of the lottery a bit, so rookies get one chance in the lottery, second year teams get two, etc.

A few teams have asked us if their qualification for the 2020 Championship would carry to 2022. The answer, unfortunately, is no. It doesn’t make sense to us for something a team accomplished in 2019 or 2020 to earn them a prequalified spot in the 2022 Championship, except for Championship-level Chairman’s Award winners.

Remote Chairman’s Award Interviews

We recognize that the pandemic may still be disrupting the ability of teams to travel in April 2022. For this reason, teams that would be eligible to compete for Chairman’s Award at the 2022 Championship, but are being prevented from traveling because of COVID, will have the option to compete remotely. These teams will be interviewed over video sometime within the week before their assigned Championship and will not need to pay any event registration fee.

Teams should expect that in 2023 we will be going back to the ‘you need to be present to win’ standard for Chairman’s Award.

Bring Your Own Robot

Just as we had planned for the 2020 FIRST Championship , you will be able to bring your own robot to the 2022 FIRST Championship (versus being required to ship it)! More details will be shared later.

Awards

Also, as we had planned for the 2020 FIRST Championship, we are eliminating the concept of “subdivisions” at the 2022 FIRST Championship. What had been called “subdivisions” will now just be “divisions.” This means six sets of awards rather than the traditional three will be presented in each location. A higher percentage of teams will be going home from Championship with tangible evidence of their hard work!

I’m getting pumped for the season!

Frank

*Yeesh, can’t we wait a bit before talking about FIRST Championship, Frank? Well, we could, but we don’t want to. We’re already making plans and are excited to share them!