All teams must submit a Round 1 form. A form is needed even if the team is opting to “keep” their pre-assigned home event. Pre-assignment spots will be released on Sunday, October 5th in preparation for Round 2 Event Registration, so it’s important to submit your team’s Round 1 form right away

Form link: Round 1 FiM FTC Event Registration Form (link)Opens 7am, Thurs. Oct 2; due by Sunday, Oct. 5

• This eblast has been sent to the Lead Coach/Mentor 1, Lead Coach/Mentor 2, and Team Administrator for your team. The team should submit ONE Round 1 Event Registration Form.
• The Home Event Pre-assignment IS NOT an event placement. A Round 1 Event Registration form must be submitted even if your team would like to “keep” their pre-assigned home event.
• FiM FTC Home Event Pre-assignment full list (link). https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vSbjukSK-ofdjx1DlD4h4unweU2ZBybcLqC55s_Ke8MiolsGUrF96DtIyq943Ug6TmWiP_6581Wp2is/pubhtml?gid=1510498341&single=true
• If your team is not yet registered for the 2025-26 season, please fill out the linked FTC Registration Status form to share the team’s season participation status, if the team hasn’t already.
• If you are a league team, your pre-assigned home event should be your league tournament. If this is not the case, email tammy@firstinmichigan.org.
• If your pre-assigned home event is hours away from your location (and you aren’t a UP team), there is likely a mistake. Email tammy@firstinmichigan.org.
• Event capacity is a limiting factor to home event pre-assignments. Some events have a large number of teams in their circumference. In this case, not all teams can be pre-assigned to their physically closest home event due to capacity constraints. Each event has a buffer allocation of spots for late-forming teams.
• FiM FTC will not be able to officially place a team into an event through the FTC Scoring System until the team is registered with FIRST HQ for the 2025-26 season ($325 FIRST HQ season registration fee is paid).
• Note your event’s States’ advancement location:
  • Each qualifying event (qualifier or league tournament) advances a set number of teams to one of the two FiM FTC State Championship events: Dec 12-13 States-NW in Muskegon or Dec. 13-14 States-SE in Grand Blanc.
  • A team can earn advancement to only one State Championship event.
  • If a team has a strong preference for attending a particular State Championship event, the team should choose to participate in qualifying events that advance to that preferred State Championship event. It will not be possible to switch an advancing team from one State Championship event to the other.
  • Once a team earns a state’s advancement spot, they are no longer eligible to earn advancement spots at subsequent qualifying events where the team participates. The team can still earn awards at the subsequent events.
  • Advancement allocations by event are posted on the https://firstinmichigan.us/FTC/event-registration/ site page under “Advancement Allocations”.

Overview of Round 1 Event Registration Process

• The Round 1 event registration form will prompt the team to make a choice: “Keep” their pre-assigned home event or “Change” events.
• If a team chooses to “change” their Round 1 event from their pre-assigned home event, they must provide 5 ranked alternative preferences of events. These are preferences and not a guarantee of where the team will be placed.
• For multiple teams out of the same school/org. that who want to be placed in the same event: Opting to “keep” your team’s Home Event Pre-assignment is the only choice that guarantees that this occurs due to capacity constraints at events.
• When processing the forms, all of the teams that choose to “keep” their pre-assigned home events will be placed in those events first. Then, in date/timestamp order, the “change” request preferences are processed.
• For example, when processing a team’s “change” form and their first choice preference has space, the team will be placed in that event. But, if the team’s first choice preference is at capacity, the 2nd ranked preference is checked. If the team’s 2nd preference still has space, the team will be placed in that event. If not, the 3rd ranked preference is checked, and so on.
• If a team does not provide enough ranked preferences (like only one, for example), and their 1st ranked preference is at capacity, the team will be placed in their pre-assigned home event by default. It is recommended that if a team really doesn’t want their pre-assigned home event, the team should provide all 5 ranked preferences.
• 2nd and possibly 3rd Round Event Registration will occur after 1st round event placement is completed. Stay tuned to team eblasts!
• Please refer to the https://firstinmichigan.us/FTC/event-registration/ site page for more details on the event registration process if you have more questions. The allocation of advancement spots by event is posted at the above link.

HQ “Event Ready” Status

FIRST HQ deems a team as “Event Ready” when the following tasks are completed:

• Team has both a Lead Coach/Mentor 1 and 2 listed on the Team Dashboard.
• Both Lead Coach/Mentor 1 and 2 have electronically signed their FIRST HQ Consent/Release form (indicated on the individual’s FIRST Account).
• Both Lead Coach/Mentor 1 and 2 have completed the FIRST Youth Protection background screening (indicated on the individual’s FIRST Account).

If your team paid their season registration fee over a weekend or via PO, there could be a delay in the team showing as “paid” on the HQ system. If there is a problem with the processing of your team’s season registration fee, reach out directly to FIRST HQ at ftcteams@firstinspires.org. Please put your team number in the subject line of the note i.e. “FTC 9999”.

All team members must be registered on the team, with an electronically signed FIRST HQ Consent/Release form submitted, before the team’s first event. Once registered on the team, the student will appear on the Team Roster accessible from the Team Dashboard. It is best to complete this task now, rather than waiting until “crunch time”.  FIRST’s “Express Enrollment” path is the fastest, easiest way to accomplish this team task: https://www.firstinspires.org/programs/youth-registration.

Idea: Have a “Get registered” themed team meeting! Set up a laptop or two and invite parents/guardians to come in to work through the process. Have someone on hand who is familiar with navigating the HQ system to assist (ok, I know they just moved everything around!).