[Madison]

FRC488 entered two FTC teams into the WA state event yesterday. We're proud to say that, after some frustrating trouble with the blue tooth link, one of teams performed admirably and was part of the winning alliance. Also, they won the Inspire Award and are now qualified to attend the World Championship in Atlanta.

We have a lot of experience with Championship-level competition in FRC, but this is the first time we're competing at that level in FTC. I have some questions about what to expect, how to prepare and how well our performance stacks up against what y'all are seeing elsewhere in the country.

1. Presuming our FRC team is also in attendance, how do you successfully manage two teams that are not colocated? Do you share tools or have a separate set for each team? Share mentors? Students?

2. How many teams compete in FTC at that level? How many qualification matches should we expect to play?

3. To what extent should we be prepared to rebuild the robot? After sorting out blue tooth troubles, our machine scored 150+ points in the outer goal consistently and beat the next highest alliance score by ~33%. With improved ball collection, hopefully it won't run out of balls in 15 seconds.

4. Is the Inspire Award at the World Championship open to all participating teams or, as in FRC, are only those who've won it at the state level eligible? Is there a formal interview process?