Email sent out to Registered TRR Teams:
We're excited to host you all in Austin in less than two months for the 4th Texas Robot Roundup! We still have lots of work to do to prepare for what we hope to be another great event, but we have some important pieces of information to share with you.
Schedule:
We have a tentative schedule posted to the website. Please go to
trr.txfirst.org/schedule to review the schedule. Some specific details are still subject to change. However, we request that all robots and drive teams arrive by 11am on Friday, August 1st. This way, we can get a finalized match list ready for teams before lunch for the start of mandatory qualification matches in the afternoon.
Hotels:
I've been working with hotels to try to get some block rates for teams. The process has been delayed for a variety of reasons, but I finally have some details for you. Please go to
trr.txfirst.org/hotels for specifics. I'll be populating the page with additional reservation links as I get them early next week.
Registration & Fees:
We presently have just 3 open spots and 2 reserved spots left for TRR. If you know of a team that is interested in competing, please be sure to direct them to
trr.txfirst.org. You can find an up-to-date team list at
trr.txfirst.org/teamlist. Should spots still be available after July 1st, we'll make announcements about options for 2nd robots or other opportunities.
As a reminder, please send in your $350 registration fee by July 1st. FIRST in Texas may be able to provide funding to qualified teams. They will be in touch soon.
Workshops:
If your team or team representatives are interested in attending or running any workshops, trainings, panels, or meetings, please complete this survey:
http://goo.gl/ct8GTk
FLL & FTC at TRR:
We're hoping to have an FLL demo and FTC scrimmage at TRR for the first time. The FTC scrimmage is dependent on securing several key volunteers to manage matches. If your team has experience running FTC events and is interested in assisting, please let me know. Additionally, if you have an FTC team who would be interested in competing, send me an email. We're looking to have 12 to 18 FTC teams. We're still finalizing a registration process and fee, which would be no more than $100 and may also qualify for FiT grants.
Other Details:
I quickly want to address a few common questions:
- There will be no robot inspections at TRR, but teams are expected to abide by FIRST values and guidelines. An additional +5lbs robot weight is acceptable. If a robot is deemed by referees to be unsafe or to clearly violate a rule, the team will be asked to rectify the situation before continuing.
- Elimination Alliances are 4 teams. The Alliance captain determines which teams play each match with no requirement on who plays. Draft order is 1-8, 8-1, 1-8.
- Any other game rules changes will be announced soon. Changes are only made to benefit team and volunteer experience.
- We will again have a canned food drive and "Austin Can!" recognition. Further info to come, but feel free to start collecting!
- TRR Trading Post will be back! Teams will be able to fundraise by selling goods, but not food. We'll get you a signup form soon.
- We're trying to figure out whether the schedule will allow for special tournaments like a Skills Challenge or Mentor Tournament. We'll let you know once we have a plan finalized.
- Just to reiterate, we have no answers on 2nd robot entries yet. We're still trying to make sure as many individual teams as possible can compete before opening it up. Sorry to the interested teams.
- NIWeek details will be coming very soon! See trr.txfrist.org/niweek.
As always, please let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to seeing many of you at T.R.I. and RoboReboot over the next few weekends and at TRR later this summer!