FIM State Championship and Houston

Competition Championship Event
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I would think this topic is already in discussion, but I don’t see it. Please point me to the proper thread if it is. Thanks

Ahh! We’re looking at making the Michigan Championship and potentially Worlds for the first time since 2015. Help!

FIM Championship is 4/13/2022 to 4/16/2022
Houston is 4/20/2022 to 4/23/2022 the following week.

The shipping guidelines state that the robot needs to be shipped via FedEx to Houston on 4/12/2022 at the latest. So I have to ship the robot the day before the FIM event where I’ll know if we qualify for Houston?

Would we need to build a 2nd robot to ship to Houston (before we know if we qualified for Houston)?

Or is Houston out of the picture for most FIM teams this year?

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For standard truck freight that is the case,

For the late qualifiers like FiM teams, they will do air freight at no cost to the team. So no you don’t need to build a second machine and ship it to Houston before you know if your qualify. But you should prepare to have a crate or at least the materials ready to go because you will need to ship it immediately.

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There was an announcement that there will be an option to ship direct from MSC Saturday night from FiM a while back. I’ll see if I can dig it up and get the date…

Edit, found it from Gail on Feb. 14:

HOUSTON LOGISTICS
We know that the short turnaround time between States and Houston is rough. I have been working with FIRST to make things easier. FIRST has arranged for FEDEX to ship robots, and possibly pit items, to Houston directly from the State Championship at SVSU on Saturday evening FOR FREE. FIRST will also make sure that late registering teams have hotel rooms available and are not paying a surcharge.

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That’s helpful. Thanks.

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Well that’s interesting, I never received an email like that. (And as a lead mentor, I would have expected to get one. Now i have to wonder what other emails i have missed.)

It’s good to know they have made some arrangements to alleviate the burden placed on MI teams.

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Interesting look at Worlds. Michigan has been the largest collection of Robots in the States and hence became a District many years ago. And yet FIRST dropped their local [St Louis or Detroit] Worlds Event. A little lack of respect??? I for one don’t get it.

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As has been discussed elsewhere, the Detroit CMP venue commitments were easier for FIRST to get out of.

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If I give up on my commitments, GEMS don’t have a Shop to build in. Mentors and Sponsors are the core and only reason that we have quality Robotics competitions. Dropping a World Event creates a huge stress for our larger area Mentors, Families and the Schools. The cost for that group soars. I would have tried harder. Turning backs on all of our larger areas’ efforts and support over the years makes no sense to me. Just talking about the elephant in the room…

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There’s other discussions that have been started on worlds. Please keep on topic from OP which seems to be resolved.

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I believe that teams have the option of arranging their own transportation to CMP. This was discussed in the Blog in the fall of 2019.

That blog post discusses how the rules were changed for 2020. I can’t find anything in the 2022 manual that repeats either the old (pre-2020) or new (2020) rule.

Assuming that this ability to bring your own robot to CMP is still in effect, I would think that individual teams or groups of teams could arrange to transport their robots directly from DCMP to CMP. In fact, I would have thought that FiM might have arranged for a dedicated truck to transport all the robots that qualify (along with potentially their pit toolboxes, etc.).

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Hey, Neighbor! We are in the same boat. A lovely unexpected challenge-hopefully! I am not worried about getting our 'bot to Champs (Thank you FedEx) but all my kids and mentors across state lines on short notice. And the extra $$$.

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The latest from Gail:

"Fed Ex will pick up (from FIM Championship) and have it there on time. You will be allotted one crate for the robot and whatever else you want to throw in there securely but I think the weight limit is 400. You will likely have to make arrangements for your other items to get down there. I think FIRST had a blog with the tentative schedule but I can’t seem to find it now.

You will be required to turn in a conditional PO for the Championship at the same time you pay for States. That way if you qualify, the financial piece is done and you don’t have to scramble. "

I’ve seen other threads about only the robot, bumpers, and batteries in the crate and everything else shipped separately and paid for by the team. It looks like those posts are dated now that the 400 pound limit is in place.

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