FIRST Tech Challenge Oregon:

We had a very nice official start to the FIRST Tech Challenge League Meet Season this past week.  Our thanks to our Volunteers and Mentors for making it happen.

 Although the points and the rankings only tell part of the story, we have posted them for you to see. I know some teams are looking forward to begin data crunching for competitive analysis scouting.  This is why I have included non-league teams on this email. Non-League teams will competing with League teams in the Super-Qualifiers.

ORTOP is posting the results in Google Sheets linked to the ORTOP website. 

• There is an Overview - Top Scores from individual matches, #1 Ranked team from each League and Cumulative Rankings for each individual League.
• There are also separate League folders with Rosters, Matches and League Rankings
  
• Be sure to look at the tabs at the bottom of each sheet.
  

Making  Sense of Ranking Sheets
For more information about Qualifying Points and Ranking Points - Go to FTC Game Manual 1 - Pages 10 & 17. 
League Teams carry forward their best 10 of 15 matches (5 per meet)  to the League Qualifying Tournament.   The 10 best matches establishes the team's  League Ranking at the beginning of the League QT.  Best matches are those with wins, followed by those with ties, followed by losses and their corresponding ranking points. The 5 matches played at the League QT are added to the League Ranking.

It is important for League teams to participate in as many League Meets as possible to accumulate Quality Points and Ranking Points.


How do you find the Results? EASY! Go to the ORTOP webpage for FIRST Tech Challenge - www.ortop.org/ftc   ----- In the right column is the Results link.

Our wishes for a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving Holiday!

Regards,
Cathy Swider 

FIRST Tech Challenge Oregon - What you should know! 

Important Game Ruling concerning the contact with the Beacons 
There is a nationwide issue with beacon damage. There are several issues involved. FTC Oregon is working with our FTAs and League Managers to fix this issue.  Here are some insights.

• We realize that the stability of the beacon attachment on IFI fields is less stable than on the newer  AndyMark fields. 
• ORTOP has requested FIRST to provide an official solution to stabilization of the Beacons on IFI Fields (90% of Oregon League use IFI fields). Prior to that some League Managers have found temporary solutions to this issue to increase stability. 
• IMPORTANT GAME RULLING: A note from the Game Design Committee (GDC): Aggressive Beacon Contact and <G15> Field Damage. Find it in the Miscellaneous Answers section of the FTC Forum
  "We are hearing reports of teams driving their robots aggressively and repeatedly making very hard contact on the Beacons and the walls adjacent to the Beacons.

     Aggressive contact that causes significant flexing of the walls or moves/dislodges a Beacon will be considered field damage and penalized according to <G15>. Teams should expect to receive warnings and may receive Major Penalties and a Yellow Card for excessive or chronic aggressive Beacon contacts."

• Oregon FTC Referees will provide warnings to the teams about aggressive Beacon play and encourage them to come up with better engineered solutions.  
• This ruling is the primary strategy being adopted by FIRST to avoiding damage to the beacons. 

Game Footage from FTC Minnesota QT  last week. 
Take a look at what some other teams are doing 

 FIRST Tech Challenge Oregon Event Payments
..........you may only think you've paid this.... please read
We have 62 teams that have not yet paid their for the events.  All payments were due on November 15 for everyone. Please pay if you haven't done so, or communicate to Cathy Swider why not.
 Check this list to see if we have received your ORTOP EVENT payment. 

For new coaches/mentors - There seems to be some confusion about National Registration paid to Pitsco (and ultimately to FIRST in Manchester, NH) and the Event Fee charged by Oregon Robotics Tournament and Outreach Program (ORTOP). These are two separate fees. National registration of $275 does not cover paying for anything related to the league meets or tournaments you attend. All of that money stays in New Hampshire.   ORTOP must charge their own event fee to pay expenses for those events and to support the FTC program in Oregon. There is a sliding scale for payments to accommodate team needs.
Full explanation of ORTOP Event Fee Structure.  

League Payments  
Online Credit Card Payments 
Check payments 
Purchase Order payments 

Non League Qualifying Tournament payments 
Online Credit Card Payments 

Check payments 
Purchase Order payments 

FIRST Tech Challenge Dean's List - detailed information 
This is a fabulous opportunity for FTC Sophomores and Juniors. Important note - for Oregon, all FIRST Tech Challenge Dean's List nominations must be submitted by December 15th. All nominations must meet all requirements and procedures. This award is primarily managed by the national FIRST organization and as the Affiliate Partner I have no authority to grant extensions. Nominations must be submitted on time and correctly. Read the guidelines carefully. Oregon will select four FTC Dean's List Finalists who will be invited for Dean's List Finalist activities at  FTC World Championship in Houston.
Congratulations to last season's national Dean's List Winner - Anshuman Radhakrishnan | Team 4855 | Batteries in Black | Portland, OR

Resources for your teams! 
Have you been making use of the following resources? Click on the links and see where it takes you.
http://www.ortop.org/ftc  - look in the right column for all the important current links. 
http://www.firstinspires.org/resource-library/ftc/team-management-resources
http://www.firstinspires.org/resource-library/ftc/game-and-season-info
http://www.firstinspires.org/resource-library/ftc/robot-building-resources
 Programming -  http://www.firstinspires.org/node/5291
 This is an awesome resource  - https://www.youtube.com/user/FIRSTTechChallenge/playlists 
http://ftcforum.usfirst.org/forum.php
Know what the volunteers know!  http://www.firstinspires.org/resource-library/ftc/volunteer-resources

FTC Oregon EVENT Results Page - link on www.ortop.org/ftc
Our FTC Oregon season is underway! Time for the scouting to begin. All event results will be posted by Monday following the events. By clicking the dates you can see the Team Roster, Matches, Rankings, Top Scores, etc. 

On the Spot Reporters - This Week in FIRST Tech Challenge Oregon    
This season you'll be seeing FIRST Tech Challenge Oregon "On the Spot" Reporters at our events. They will be filming video and doing interviews with team members, mentors and volunteers. Their work will be featured in a web broadcast  - This Week in FIRST Tech Challenge Oregon - streamed on our Oregon FTC Facebook page on November 23, Dec 7, Dec 21 & March 1.  Leaderboards, highlight reel, interviews and updates from key volunteers. We are still looking for team member -  On the Spot Reporters for Leagues - Portland, Capitol, Mid-Western, Columbia Basin. Contact our VISTA - Keala Cottrell - keala-cottrell@ortop.org

FIRST Tech Challenge/ FIRST Robotics Competition Team Social
There are plenty of tickets remaining for the first annual FTC/FRC Team Social scheduled for December 9th at World of Speed in Wilsonville (not Tigard) . Information Flyer    Online Ticket Order - free tickets 
And don't forget your Safety Glasses and STIMS Roster!
And check TripCheck before you go if the weather looks iffy. 

Note: Links appear in both gray and dark orange.
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Dear FIRST Tech Challenge Oregon Teams:

A few items for you today.

FIRST Tech Challenge/ FIRST Robotics Competition Team Social - December 9th
December 9^th, Team Social from 6-11pm.  ORTOP is hosting the 1^st ever team social for Oregon FTC/FRC teams at World of Speed in Tigard, Oregon!  There is no charge for this event, however, in the spirit of Gracious Professionalism please do not print a ticket unless you intend to use it.  We are limiting this event to the first 300 participants. Information Flyer

UPDATE ON FTC OREGON LEAGUES
FTC Oregon League Meet Zero went very well for our 11 Leagues and 133 teams. Our thanks to the League Managers and volunteers for staging the events.   A large majority of the teams had running robots capable of moving and scoring at least one task. Beacons were a very popular task to try. Reports have surfaced that teams were helping each other solve issues. At the MidWestern League,  team representatives offered Tips and Tricks they learned from reading the FIRST Tech Challenge FORUM.  League Meet #1 begins the week of November 14th.  Non- League teams are invited to attend League Meets to watch the action. 

HEADS UP for League Teams 
#1 - Be sure to sure every team member, mentor and guests invited into your pit have SAFETY GLASSES. Please note that regular Rx glasses are NOT safety glasses. However, regular glasses with shatterproof lenses can be adapted to safety glasses by adding side shields, like this.
#2 - At every meet and tournament, the mentor MUST present the STIMS Roster listing the mentors and team members who have electronically submitted a FIRST Consent and Release Form AND handwritten listing of team members who have submitted paper version of the Youth Registration form.  Many of you have reported issues that our team parents have experienced in signing up their child to your teams.  I hope this this help document will help mentors assist their parents through the process. 

WHICH League or Non-League TOURNAMENT IS MY TEAM IN?
I hope this will clear it up for you.  This is a Google Sheet with several tabs.

• Tab #1: All FTC Oregon Team List - with national payment, ORTOP event payment information and more
• Tab #2: League Assignments BY League
• Tab #3: League Assignments sorted by TEAM #
• Tab #4: NonLeague QT Assignments sorted BY EVENT
• Tab #5: NonLeauge QT Assignments sorted by TEAM #
• Tab #6: Non-participating teams from prior years

WHEN AND WHERE IS OUR TEAM'S LEAGUE QUALIFYING TOURNAMENT?
Great question. We finally sorted all that out this week. Here is the list of all League and Non-League Qualifying Tournaments.

	LGE-QT-MidColumbia	1/21/2016	Hood River Valley HS	15
InterLeague	LGE-QT-ColumbiaBasin A & B	1/21/2017	Pendleton Convention Center	26
InterLeague	LGE-QT-MidWestern	1/21/2017	Fremont MS, Roseburg	24
	LGE-QT-SOAR
	LGE-QT-CentralOregon	1/21/2017	Summit HS, Bend	10
InterLeague	LGE-QT-AB- Hillsboro	1/21/2017	Hillsboro HS	24
	Hood River QT - nonleague	1/22/2017	Hood River Valley HS	22
	LGE-QT-Capitol	1/28/2017	Sprague HS	11
	OSU QT - nonleague	1/28/2017	Kelley Engineering Ctr, OSU, Corvallis	24
	OSU QT - nonleague	1/29/2017	Kelley Engineering Ctr, OSU, Corvallis	24
InterLeague	LGE-QT-Portland	1/29/2017	Madison HS, Portland	22
	LGE-QT-Beaverton

DID ORTOP RECEIVE OUR TEAM'S PAYMENT FOR LEAGUE/LEAGUE QT or NON-LEAGUE QT?
Again, great question because League Meet/League QT payments were due on October 31 with an extension to November 7.  Non-League QT payments are due November 15.  CLICK HERE to see if we have received your credit card, check or Purchase Order.

For those of you with NO in red, our records indicate no payment received as of November 8th at 11:00 am.  Please find the time to make a payments as soon as possible. This season we do have a sliding scale for event payments. If your team cannot afford to pay the higher requested amount, you can pay last year's cost and click a reason box. All reasons will be accepted.

For full explanation of this year's tournament fee policy - please click here. 

LEAGUE PAYMENT - includes League Meets and League Qualifying Tournament in one payment
Forms allow you to pay for multiple teams in one form 

• ONLINE PAYMENT LINK - for League Meets & League Qualifying Tournament
  
• To pay for League  by CHECK
• To pay for League by Purchase Order

NON-LEAGUE PAYMENT - payment of a non-league Qualifying Tournament 
Forms allow you to pay for multiple teams in one form 

• ONLINE PAYMENT LINK - for non-League Qualifying Tournament

• to pay for non-League Qualifying Tournament  by CHECK
• To pay for non-League Qualifying Tournament  by Purchase Order

FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship Waitlist
If you don't know about it, read about it here.