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Originally Posted by ArtemusMaximus
Good to know there is no bag-n-tag in FLL. If he is going to do it, I will urge him to act now.
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Acting now would be best. FLL registration is only open for anther month and there will most likely be shipping delays. There just always seems to be when it comes to FLL items.
My mom created an FLL team back during the Power Puzzle season as my brother was not allowed to join the team our school had. Their team was only open to those in the gifted program and my brother was never tested due to school politics. She has paid all the costs except t-shirt costs for her teams (a couple years she had 2 teams and if I remember correctly she has now purchased 3 Mindstorm kits and 1 EV3 kits). With FLL being such a low cost program (comparatively to FTC or FRC) it is more manageable for a community team to be created and 1 parents pay the costs or some teams break it down between each students. Although after the Mindstorm or EV3 is bought the costs go down for the following years. The first year will be about $1000 depending on how you do do it and every year thereafter will be about $600.
As for everything else this years game is World Class and game materials will be released later this month. I'd urge him to read the coaches manual that will be included in his items. It can really help reduce anxiety and stress of the unknown of how it functions. Most teams meet for a few hours every week. I think my mom got to a point where she had 4 days that kids could come and work. It worked best as most were involved in other things or had siblings who were involved in other things. You'll be able to work up until and during your competition. Depending on your area there may be scrimmages/rumbles where you can go "compete" against other teams and work out issues in a simulated competition environment. I believe most areas have gone to a qualifier system for FLL. This would mean there are smaller events that a portions of the local FLL teams attend. There will be an awards ceremony and teams will be invited to go to the Local/State Championship, or this may be the only event offered if there isn't a large amount of teams in your area/state. This functions exactly like the qualifier just with possibly more teams.
In case you were wondering how the FLL teams that go to the Championship in STL were selected, its done with a lottery. They randomly select local/state championship events to send 1 team. Usually, or how I've seen it done, is the team that wins the Champion's Award on years that even was selected go.