FIRST Robotics Competition Blog

A few years ago, we did away with the Administrative Manual for FIRST Robotics Competition, opting instead to put most of the information that had been in that manual right on the website. The idea was that much of the Administrative Manual was ‘evergreen’ in that the information and rules rarely changed from season to season, so it made little sense to keep them locked away and secret like the game rules.

That doesn't mean they never change, however! We made a change to our anthems rules earlier this week, and we have made a few other tweaks – either modifying an existing rule or moving rules (this time from the game manual) to the page with the events rules and expectations. We move rules from the game manual to the event rules page when we feel it’s a better fit.

Here’s a list of rules that have been added or modified:

• E02 (detail from 2017's S01 incorporated and the shoes and hair rules broken out to E02-1 and E02-2)
• E02-1 (new, formerly part of E02)
• E02-2 (new, formerly part of E02)
• E14-4 (new, formerly 2017's C06)
• E14-5 ((new, formerly 2017's C07)

Also (sad trombone) there will be no place on the field this year for team banners to be hung. So this element has been deleted from the event rules. You remember team banners, those cool team flags you got to hang over your player stations when you were competing? This doesn't mean team banners are going away from the field forever! I for one thought they were pretty neat*. It’s just that they won’t really fit well with this year’s game. But if you have a banner, don’t get rid of it! Who knows – they may return to the field some year! And even though you won’t be able to bring your banners to the field, you can still do things like display them in your pits.

Also note that it’s team banners that are going away for this year, not team flags. Banners are what you could hang over your player stations in 2017. Flags are what teams create to show their pride and have the MC wave as she is introducing teams on the field. You should still bring your flags to events!

Frank

*I would even go so far as to say neato, which as you know is serious.