• Competition Manual – Must read for all teams, includes a competition day overview.
• Preparing for Competition; FIRST HQ guide

For events where it is applicable, teams are encouraged to take part in early inspection on Friday.  Teams that pass inspection on Friday will have a more relaxed time Saturday morning.   

These inspections ensure that all FTC Robot rules and regulations are met. The inspection checklist linked below should be used by Teams as a guide to pre-inspect their Robot. Robots must pass both Robot and Field Inspections in order to participate in match play.

After passing the robot and field inspections,  teams will receive “passed inspection” stickers to place on the robot. Note:  Teams that make additional robot modifications, at any point, will need to do a brief re-inspection.

The following resources are available to enable teams to prepare for and pass inspections:

• Inspection Checklist – Exactly what’s used at competitions by Inspectors. 

1) Robot Inspection:  During Hardware Inspection your robot will be reviewed to ensure that it meets official size and material regulations. Please see Game Manual 1 for details. Robot Inspection will occur in a designated area usually in the pit area. 

Check for these often missed inspection points:  

• Teams provide their own Robot Signs (red and blue).
  • Robot Signs Template: https://ftc-resources.firstinspires.org/file/ftc/game/robotsign-us
• The Robot Controller is readily visible.

COTS rule clarification from a Lead Robot Inspector:

• It is FIRST’s intent that teams design and build their devices to achieve the game
  challenge. Assemblies of COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) components, such as linear slides, and gearboxes are allowed while a pre-fabricated gripper assembly designed to grab the game elements is not.
• Refer to the Competition Manual for any needed clarification.

2) Field Inspection: The Field Inspection is independent of Robot Inspection. The Field Inspection generally takes place at the Competition Fields. The team’s Drive Team (max of 2 Drivers, 1 Driver/Coach, and the Human Player) participates in Field Inspection. 

A Practice field will be available in the pit area for use by all teams.  The use of these fields will be self-regulated.  Please be considerate of others while using the practice field. Robots may not be operated when humans are inside the perimeter of the practice field.

There are 4 parts to the FTC Judging process.

1. Interview with the judges.
2. Match observations by judges. Judges observe the robot, student interactions, and the Gracious Professionalism of the entire team.
3. Judges follow up with additional interviews, as needed, in the pits during the competition.
4. Evaluation of the Engineering Portfolio where it is a required component of the Award.

Judging interview rotations occur in the first two hours of the event and can begin as early as 7:30am. Teams will have an assigned judging interview time. Teams will most likely receive their assigned judging interview time at team check-in. All team members are encouraged to participate in the Judging Interview session but it is not mandatory. Teams must attend their assigned judging interview in order to be considered for judged awards. 

Please arrive 5 minutes early for the team’s judging interview session; a missed time cannot be made up easily and causes delays for the whole event.  Judging interviews will take place in an area separate from the competition/pit area.  

Teams should bring:

• The team!
• Their robot (not powered)
• Engineering Portfolio – recommended
• Any applicable displays (optional)
• One (1) coach/mentor as a silent observer.

The judging interview is a maximum of 10 minutes with a panel of judges. Teams will be given the opportunity to do a 5 minute presentation at the start of the interview session which will be followed by a Q&A period. If the team does not have a presentation planned, let the judges know to proceed directly to the Q&A.

One (1) coach/mentor may accompany the team into the judging room but must be a silent observer of the session. Video taping and/or recording of the team’s judging interview session is prohibited.

Preparing for Judging

• Teams are encouraged to utilize the open-source Judging Summary Sheet as a preparation tool. Completed Judge Summary Sheets will not be passed back to teams at events.
• Description of FTC Awards and advancement criteria can be found in the Competition Manual.  
• The FTC Judges Manual is open source: https://www.firstinspires.org/resource-library/ftc/volunteer-resources

Judging Feedback Form: All teams will receive feedback from their judging interview session. The Judges complete a form immediately following the interview based on their initial impression of the team. This feedback form is not used during deliberations and does not include any updated feedback based on later interactions by the Judges with the team.

Judging of “Sibling Teams”

There have been questions about rules regarding affiliated teams that build identical robots and have identical Engineering Portfolios i.e. “sister teams”:

Per the FIRST FTC, there is no rule prohibiting teams from having identical robots or Engineering Portfolios. In judging – if affiliated teams have identical robots and/or Engineering Portfolios and are in consideration for a judged award where those items are key elements to the decision process, judges will try to discern (as time allows) how the teams produced these deliverables. If it cannot be determined which team “owns” the deliverables, then both teams could be removed from consideration for the awards where those deliverables are a key element. 

Sister teams should not combine for judging sessions and team members cannot represent more than one team at a given event. In this case, the judges would not be able to view the teams as distinct entities for judging purposes. 

Note that this is for judged awards where robot elements/engineering portfolio are requirements and has nothing to do with the robot game.

Engineering Portfolio

The Engineering Portfolio is a required element in the consideration for many but not all awards. Teams turn in their Engineering Portfolio to the judges at the start of their judging interview session.  See the Competition Manual for the awards that require the Engineering Portfolio and for the required format and recommended content for the Engineering Portfolio. The event will not be able to print a team’s Engineering Portfolio on site at the event. Please have the team’s Engineering Portfolio printed before coming to the event. 

At the end of the event, the team’s Engineering Portfolio will be available for pick-up at Pit Admin or will be returned to the team pit.

Control Award – The separate Control Award Submission Sheet is no longer used. Control Award content should be included in the team’s Engineering Portfolio. Refer to the Competition Manual for details.

Opening Ceremonies
The pits will close and teams will adjourn to the competition area for the opening ceremonies.  The first match will occur immediately following the conclusion.  Teams slated for Match #1 will need to be queued up prior to the start of opening ceremonies.   

Closing Ceremonies
Following the final matches, the closing ceremonies will occur.  Our qualifying, league tournament, and state championship events will be presenting the core awards.  Optional awards are at the discretion of the event. 

Game Pins:  Commemorative game-themed pins (max of 15 per team) are provided to teams.  Teams will receive their allotment of game pins at the first qualifier where they compete or, for league teams, at the team’s League Tournament.

Once all teams have checked-in and passed inspections, the match schedule for the qualification matches will be generated.  These will be distributed to the teams and will be available for pick up at Pit Admin.  

The team’s Drive Team (max 2 Drivers, 1 Driver/Coach, 1 Human Player as applicable) must wear their identifying Drive Team buttons and should arrive in the queuing area for the team’s assigned playing field TWO matches prior to the start of the team’s match.  It is recommended that the role of Driver Coach be filled by a team member. The Drive Team should pay attention to the action on their assigned playing field.  They should move to their alliance station as soon as queuing and/or the FTA gives them the go-ahead signal.  The Drive Team must stand in the alliance station assigned to them in the match list.  

The Drive Team should stay alert for the instructions and signals from the FTA, Head Referee, and the Game Announcer so that delays do not occur.  The start of the autonomous and driver-controlled portions of the match begins with a “3-2-1 GO!” countdown. Refer to Game Manual 2 for more complete match play procedures/instructions.

After the match, the FTA/Head Referee will announce when teams may remove their robots from the playing field.  The Drive Team should clear the area as quickly as possible, following the queueing path, so that the teams for the next match can set up.  

Teams will participate in at least 5 qualifying matches.  After qualification matches conclude, the alliance pairing process for the Playoff rounds will begin.  Each team sends a team member representative to a spot designated by queueing to await alliance selections.  Refer to the Competition Manual for more information on Alliance Selection and Playoff rounds.

Each qualifier/league tournament will advance a predetermined number of spots to one of the FIRST in Michigan FTC State Championship events.  Visit the EVENT REGISTRATION site page for the allocation of advancement spots by event. See the Competition Manual for the FIRST FTC mandated advancement criteria.  FIRST in Michigan FTC has opted out of the optional Qualifier Host Team advancement spot.