[FRC Blog] Award Updates for the 2024 Season

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Posted on the FRC Blog, 9/12/2023: https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc/blog/2023-award-updates-for-the-2024-season

Award Updates for the 2024 Season

Written by Fiona Hanlon, FIRST Robotics Competition Team Experience Specialist

It’s that time of year where we share award updates for the new season. Last week, we shared updates to the Dean’s List Award and that the Team Sustainability Award sponsored by Dow has new award guidelines and today we’ll share a few more updates.

We also wanted to take this opportunity to remind teams of some great award resources that are available such as:

  • Dean’s List Award Guide – This guide assists team in preparing for the submission and for participating in the Dean’s List Award interview. It contains information on the Dean’s List Award, best practices for writing the submission and preparing for the interview, and more!
  • Inside Look at the Judging Process – This document covers how the judging process >works at events.
  • Best Practices for FIRST ® Robotics Competition Judged Awards - This resource includes tips for talking with judges in the pits as well as tips for the FIRST Impact Award and Dean’s List Award.
  • FIRST ® Impact Award Resources - This webpage contains multiple resources to help teams when submitting for the FIRST Impact Award including, previous winning team’s submissions, an FAQ on the award, and additional resources.
  • New! Award Workbook – This resource contains the award descriptions and guidelines as well as suggested questions that judges may use during pit interviews. This document replaces a document we used to provide with just suggested questions.

FIRST Impact Award Video Changes

For years, teams have been required to bring a copy of their video on a flash drive and provide it to the judges. Over the past couple of seasons, we have heard concerns about the security risk of using a flash drive from our volunteers as well as production companies. We have also had our handful of stories where the team forgot or lost their flash drive and thus were ineligible for the award.

To help combat all of the above, we are making a few changes for the season:

  • The FIRST Impact Award Video will now be entered as part of the submission process. To ensure that videos are able to be played at the events, videos must be posted on a file sharing site (such as Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) and the link must be made public to allow downloads. We recognize that this means that the video deadline is now earlier than it has been in the past.
  • We are removing the requirement of having a video, so the FIRST Impact Award Video will be optional. This video will still not be part of the judging process (unless shown directly to judges during the interview) so teams should not feel like they have to create a video. That being said, the FIRST Impact Award video is a great way for teams to showcase what they do to their supporters and community. Additionally, if the winning team does have a video, it will still be played at the event after the winner is announced.

We also know many teams like producing the video with their media sub-teams but may not be able to finish the video by the deadline. One thing that teams can consider doing is entering a link during the submission process that will later redirect to the FIRST Impact Award video. This allows teams more time to finish the video if they need or to continue to iterate on the video from event to event. One way to do this is using Google Drive and creating a folder and sharing that folder link in the submission. If you take this approach, there should only be one file in the folder at the event.

FIRST Impact Award Feedback Guidance

Last season, we rolled out a new change and allowed teams to submit an optional question that teams could receive feedback on from the event’s judges. We received a myriad of questions, some of which were not relevant to the award and were directing questions to FIRST Headquarters. We wanted to remind teams that these questions do not go to FIRST HQ, they are reviewed and answered by your event judges.

In addition, we wanted to help provide some example questions that teams could choose to use. Check out the Feedback Section under FIRST Impact Award on the Submitted Awards webpage for some suggested questions to use.

Removal of Highest Rookie Seed

We have decided to remove the Highest Rookie Seed Award. This award celebrated the highest-seeded rookie team at the conclusion of the qualifying rounds and was presented at events with more than 1 Rookie. This award was presented at fewer than half of the events last season.

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A little bummed that we won’t necessarily get to see videos from all the FIRST Impact Award winners, but everything else in this blog post are steps in the right direction. Kudos, HQ.

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Does anyone have any data on this

I’m curious how often it was given in previous years and if the fact that there was less awards given out means that there is also less rookies

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It means there are less rookies per event. There’s a heck of a lot more events than there used to be (diluting the rookies that exist), and many areas don’t necessarily have a lot of rookie team growth every single season.

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At events I went to, it seems like some events had 1 rookie team and others might have 4. So even if it averages out to more than 2 rookies per event (FiM averaged 1.64, for example), the variation in event selection by rookies could have helped skew it to half the events not having the award.

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What information war??

This is, and I mean it, such real progress from HQ. Last season, people complained about not knowing the contents of the judging handbook. Essentially, part of that handbook has now been made public. Bravo.

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I’ve been loving the changes to Judging in FLL glad to see it move to FRC as well. Excited to how they further tune things

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It is indeed a pretty big deal. I’m glad to see them share this. Hope we get to see the ref updates this year.

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Interesting choice of wording:

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Does this mean that any 9400+ team, including secondary teams of veteran teams can apply for RAS/RI? :thinking:

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They have to fall in to the definition of rookie outlined by FIRST here:

Newly formed teams who are assigned team numbers that have never been used:

  • Rookie Team

    • Team associated with a school or organization that did not have a FIRST Robotics Competition team participate in the last 3 seasons, and
    • Does not have 6 or more student participants with prior FIRST Robotics Competition experience
    • Eligible for the New Team Grant

  • Non-Rookie Team NOT formed from a Separation or Combination

    • Team associated with a school or organization that had a FIRST Robotics Competition team participate in the last 3 seasons, or
    • More than 5 student participants with prior FIRST Robotics Competition experience
    • NOT formed from a Separation OR Combination: Separation/Combine Rules
    • Eligible for the New Team Grant

  • Non-Rookie Team formed from a Separation or Combination

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I’m pretty sure that was just a quick rule for judges to use, the actual eligibility criteria are on the awards page.

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Youd think a program more focused on creating teams rather than sustaining existing ones wouldnt have this issue. Bad change imo.

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I don’t think that’s really the case. FIRST is focused on expanding overall, but some areas are already pretty saturated. South east Michigan isn’t adding 20% more teams every year which would be necessary to even average 2 rookie teams per event. That’s the strongest example, but I think a number of areas are sufficiently saturated that there probably isn’t going to be that rate of team growth.

I do think this statistic is exacerbated by the fact that districts which will tend to be more established areas likely to be closer to carrying capacity for the area have more than double the events per team as well as smaller events which means a high proportion of rookies is needed, but I don’t think it’s all that surprising that there would increasingly be events with 1 or 0 rookie teams as some areas become saturated with veteran teams.

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