[iPenguin]

From Ken's Blog:

This season over 3,000 teams will compete in the FIRST Tech Challenge. If you do the math, that’s over 30,000 students involved in FTC competitions.

This growth is exciting and presents a great opportunity.

An important part of FTC is merit based advancement. In short, teams who are judged and compete at the highest levels advance to the next competition. With 3,000 plus teams, earning your way from a state or regional Championship to the FTC World Championship is a narrow funnel – allowing only two teams per event. In order to make this more equitable and to give teams a chance at more events to continue their journey, FIRST is introducing a new level of competition called FTC Super-Regionals.

Beginning this season, teams in the U.S. will advance from state or regional-level Championships to one of four Super-Regionals, before advancing to the FTC World Championship.

This new tier in the advancement ladder creates a sustainable system for the program’s merit-based qualification system. The Super-Regionals are slated to take place in Northern California, Texas, Iowa and Pennsylvania.




For more information on the Super-Regionals, please visit the Super-Regionals FAQ page.

~Ken Johnson
Director, FIRST Tech Challenge

Ready or not, here they come FTC!