Lego League Teams

[GVDrummer]

Have any teams or people been helping out with the FIRST Lego Competition? Team 288 has helped over 10 teams this year from Grandville and we have 7 teams going to state. 

Also, who thinks the year’s game challenge was somewhat difficult? The rules seemed to be a butt. The RoboDawgs helped run the Grandville Invitational which drew over 24 teams from across the east side of Michigan and a few on the west side. It went very well, there were a few issues with the rules, but it was sorted out quickly.

Has anyone seen a perfect 400 yet?!?!

If so they are amazing!!!

One Grandville team received a 365 and 380.

[StephLee]

I helped with two of our county's five teams this year, and volunteered at the Pittsburgh competition. No one scored a 400, but one of our teams scored a 380 or so. We were quite proud of them; it was in the very last match and put them in first place for robot performance.

The team I was most proud of, though, was our team of elementary school kids, all fourth and fifth graders. Most of them attended the LEGO camps we ran over the summer, and so I felt kind of like a proud parent watching them compete. I think they placed 17th or so out of the 50-60 teams competing. It was an incredible feeling to know I'd helped them get started.

[GVDrummer]

yeah thats sweet, and to think these kids will be in our shoes in less then 5 years!!

[StephLee]

That's the best part! The first group of kids I worked with at a summer camp are now in the 8th grade, about to come up and join the high school team. It's a fantastic feeling, knowing that the people who are going to replace me next year are kids I helped get started when they were just entering the 6th grade!

[lynca]

I've seen a 355 and 375 at central Texas FLL , however I don't think the winner of the Champion's award is going to World Festival. I wonder why the FLL world festival is so exclusive ? How many teams qualify ?

[GVDrummer]

I know only one team from Michigan goes to worlds in Atlanta. So maybe around 100 considering global teams also

[Rich Wong]

I've seen a 355 and 375 at central Texas FLL , however I don't think the winner of the Champion's award is going to World Festival. I wonder why the FLL world festival is so exclusive ? How many teams qualify ?

There are just not enough spots at the World Festival (about 80) and this year there are over 4000 registered FLL Teams. I'm not sure how many State Championship events are scheduled for this year but I bet it is over 80! Therefore not all the State Championships will hand out World Festival invitations.

Even if the FLL Team gets a perfect 400 points they will not be invited to the Atlanta unless the team wins the Director's Award.

[Allison K]

I know only one team from Michigan goes to worlds in Atlanta. So maybe around 100 considering global teams also

So this is confirmed then? Do you know which state tournament is giving out the director's award?

Also, I know of at least two perfect 400's in Michigan - one at the Saginaw regional and one at the Novi States.

I really enjoyed the theme but our younger kids (actually, even our older kids) had a lot of trouble with the strategy because scoring was so complicated. I think having the base in the middle of the board was easier than in the corner though, because at most the robot had to go four feet.

~Allison

[GVDrummer]

So this is confirmed then? Do you know which state tournament is giving out the director's award?

Also, I know of at least two perfect 400's in Michigan - one at the Saginaw regional and one at the Novi States.


~Allison

The award that is given out to go to Worlds in Atlanta is at Flint, Michigan this year. The tournament is this Saturday the 15th. One award is given out to the team who places best in the Teamwork Challenge, technical Judging, The presentation, and final the robot competition.

[EricH]

I'm hoping that one of the Atlanta slots will be occupied by one of the three JV Beach' Bots teams. One of them came close last year.

I mentored the first of the teams its first year. The next year, make that two and I was a ref/judge--I didn't have the time to mentor full time, so I was "on call" and helping another team at times. This year, no involvement due to distance, but I have been following the three teams as best I can.

And yes, the rules were confusing. Did they ask whoever came up with the 2005 loading zone rules to write them? :rolleyes::D

[Elgin Clock]

I've seen a 355 and 375 at central Texas FLL , however I don't think the winner of the Champion's award is going to World Festival. I wonder why the FLL world festival is so exclusive ? How many teams qualify ?

If you had one from each state tournament, and there were 50 of them alone, that's 50 teams already. Now add one for each country (or more) who are involved in FLL and that is already a huge amount.

If FRC had as many teams as FLL you would be asking the same questions, because it would have to be (even) more limiting as to who got in every year than it is.

[EricH]

If you had one from each state tournament, and there were 50 of them alone, that's 50 teams already. Now add one for each country (or more) who are incolved in FLL and that is already a huge amount.

And some states have more than one already--SoCal has two (Legoland and Manhattan Beach) and there is at least one in Northern California. Try condensing those three into one.

[LizzieP]

At the NH state tournament, there were three teams that scored at least one 400. They were the Renewable Energy Hogs #20,and the Flying Geeks, and my FLL team, Mindstorms Mayhem #33(who scores were 398, 400, 400, 394, 397, and 400). All three teams used the RCX and gained the big fairness bonus. By the way, my team was the robot performance winners.

NH was one of the state tournaments that gave out a ticket to Atlanta. The Inventioneers won the Champions award and the Flying Geeks got second place.

The teamwork challenge at the state competition was making a mosaic from 150 pennies. At the qualifying tournament my team attended, you were given newspaper, tape, paper clips, and staples. You then had to build the tallest tower you could. Anyody know any other teamwork challenges from this year?

[Allison K]

The teamwork challenge at the state competition was making a mosaic from 150 pennies. At the qualifying tournament my team attended, you were given newspaper, tape, paper clips, and staples. You then had to build the tallest tower you could. Anyody know any other teamwork challenges from this year?

My FRC team had the kids build a house of cards at the scrimmage we hosted. The tournament I judged at had something to do with Jenga towers, though I"m not sure exactly what since I was judging presentations. The regional tournament many of my teams went to gave the kids a long threaded rod and a bucket of nuts, and they had to thread as many of the nuts all the way across the rod as possible.

[wilsonmw04]

We took our FTC team to the VA&DC finals at JMU over the weekend. We had a great time showing off our robot and the kids had a blast driving it :-)
I found out something interesting while i was talking to the coaches/parents of the FLL teams: They are really, really excited about the FTC format. They see it as the next logical step as their kids outgrow FLL. Some of the questions they asked were, "how much does it cost?" "is there a Project that goes with the robot?" "how much time does it take to make one if those?"

They were quite pleased with the answers i gave them. Look for a lot of new teams in the future.

PS: another observation i saw was a lot of the teams were not affiliated with a school. All the students went to the same school, but they found it very difficult to work within the confines of the school's rules. Instead of jumping through the hoops, they did it themselves. Has anyone noticed that as well? Does anyone know if FIRST sees this as a problem?

[bhsrobotics1671]

Buchanan Robotics volunteered over 20 hours at the state championships in Clovis, CA. We helped mentor 12 other teams before the actual championship event. We had 2-4 of our team member per FLL team in our area. 3 of the teams we mentored placed in the top ten. 73 teams actually competed at the tournament. Our robotics team recieved two awards for our help in the tournament and mentoring.

[Laaba 80]

I have not seen a perfect score yet this season. I mentored two teams this year, neither of which could get perfect scores. I was a ref at the Mukwanago regional, and the WI state tournament, and the best score was 397. That team uses an RCX, and is capable of a perfect score.

[GVDrummer]

Some teams that qualified through the Grandville Invitational hosted by Team #288 the RoboDawgs were home schooled or just a group of kids. The top teams were from schools however.

[GaryVoshol]

The award that is given out to go to Worlds in Atlanta is at Flint, Michigan this year. The tournament is this Saturday the 15th. One award is given out to the team who places best in the Teamwork Challenge, technical Judging, The presentation, and final the robot competition.
The advancement to World Festival from Michigan has not yet been officially announced, although it has been determined. Many know what that decision is, but I am not at liberty to say.

The Champion Award team at the Novi tournament scored a perfect 400 in their last round. They had scored 395 earlier in the day. I wish I could remember their team number! Second place on the table was a 399 (an RCX with a raw score of 395 - at these high levels, the RCX bonus is not nearly as significant.)

FLL has become so popular around the world that there just isn't enough space in Atlanta to invite the winners of all State Tournaments. All but 6 states have a State Tournament. Of those 6, at least 3 go to a different state - VT to NH, NM and OK to the Tri-State Tournament in TX. Five states have 2 tournaments (AK, MA, ME, MI, PA). TX has 3, CA has 4, and NY has 5. That makes a total of 58 - way too many.

Incidentally, Paul Gudonis was at the Novi tournament and he said there were over 10,000 FLL teams world-wide.

[GVDrummer]

10,000 teams.. that seems high

[Bomberofdoom]

Team 2230 from Handasaim-Herzeliya High School, Israel is supporting this year 5 FLL teams, 4 from our High School, and an additional one from the nearby Junior High School, Yad Giyora, which is really great for us as a 2nd year team.

I just love FLL. :D

[Boydean]

Our team helped start and mentor the only FLL team in our town, but we are still working on getting some more teams started for next year.Not to mention host a FLL scrimmage for the team in the surrounding areas.

I will say that the rules for this years game is a little flip-flopish

One last thing: Has anyone thought of the idea of baseing the theme for FLL around the game for FRC, then that can be the hint. But just maybe they aren't enough into planning the FRC game to base the FLL theme around it.

[Rich Wong]

10,000 teams.. that seems high

2006 "Nano Quest" 8,846 teams.

2007 "Power Puzzle" 10,600 teams (projected)
US and Canada: 250+ qualifying tournaments and 64 championship tournaments
Outside US & Canada: 112 Qualifying tournaments and 25 championship tournament.
(Data from FLL History at www.firstlegoleague.org)
:]

[Akash Rastogi]

We run 4 or 5 teams just in our district and a few others from local counties.MORTalso hosts the NJ State Championships at Mount Olive high School which btw went very well this past Saturday :D .

[Pavan Dave]

We have three regionals in Texas and I believe all of them are Atlanta qualifiers. Our team mentors about 20 teams (+/- 1 or 2), and we run the Lone Star FLL tournament. I think one or two of the teams we mentored made it into the final four but our approach to mentoring is different and so the kids do all of the stuff and we just point them in the right direction and teach them things here and there.

Also many parents have asked me about the next step in robotics for their kids and in our district BEST is the answer. I also told a few parents about VEX because they asked and I think that is a great Christmas present for a middle school kid or even a high school kid or an engineer.

EDIT: Link to Largest FLL Tournament in the World thread (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59903).

[pakratt1991]

the FLL team I, and another student worked with, 3750, The Micro Transformers, scored a 375, 400, and a 330 at the Competition in Corvallis Oregon. At which my team volunteered.

[Tsom467]

Team 467 (Duct Tape Bandits) has had Lego teams for the past 7 or 8 years or so, usually multiple team. This year we had 4 teams, consisting of 10 middle school students ("Junior Bandits"). 10 of the high school students coach and mentored the 4 teams. We went to 3 competitions this year and for the first time, we held our own Lego League competition (www.mindstormmayhem.org). Our teams did a fantastic job, bringing home several awards, from spirit (boy they were loud!), to Leadership awards.

The Lego teams are our "feeder" program. Many of the high school team members started out on the lego team - we have seniors this year that have been involved in FIRST for 6+ years!