Stuart, One year, our FLL team had too many students for one team, so we registered as two teams, and went to the tournament as two separate teams. However, we practiced and did everything *together* during the season, including working together on everything, sharing ideas, and helping each other learn. At the tournament, the kids did have two robots, and they did two different skits, but we all felt like one team, and we all celebrated the season together. Neither of our two teams of kids won any awards, but they had a great time, and they learned a lot, together. It would be good experience for the group which is further along, to help the other group... helping other teams is always a good idea. Perhaps something like this could work for your students? I hope you and your team do attend a tournament! :-) PS #1 - Regarding RoboLab: while it is more advanced than RIS (I am told), I also have heard that RIS is simpler and easier to learn than RoboLab... thus, we have always used RIS when we programmed our RCX FLL robots... keeping it simple helps a lot. PS #2 - Our kids usually don't have any robot missions working until the practice before the tournament, so please believe me, your team is not alone. :-) Good Luck! Kevin Kevin Hines FLL Coach [log in to unmask] www.RoanokeRobotics.org -----Original Message----- From: First Lego League Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Stuart Roll Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 1:24 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [VADCFLL-L] Partial tournament participation? One of the schools I coach at has multiple teams. An additional team was added well after the season started, has rookie coaches and (mostly) kids, was "stuck" with the old RCX kit, had troubles with RoboLab and finding all the old sensors, didn't know what they needed to know but didn't, etc., etc., etc. The kids and coaches of that team are very discouraged about this year's tournament w.r.t. the public robotics table competition. They are upbeat about doing robotics at school this next off-season and participating properly in next year's FLL tournaments but they really won't have anything to show off and be proud of at the robot competition. (I know - we normally suggest they just do a couple of missions and be proud of that but in this particular circumstance they probably won't be able to do even that.) They are willing, I think, to come to the tournament and participate in the judged events (even showing their robot to the Robot Design judges) if they can simply skip the table competition. If that is not permitted, they will probably choose to withdraw completely and simply attend it to observe and cheer on others. Does anybody know if this kind of partial participation would be allowed? They are scheduled for one of the Ashburn tournaments. Stuart ______________________________________________________________ To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE YOUR SETTINGS, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list". If you want to join the VADCFLL-ADMIN-L mailing list - to which FLL administrative announcements will be distributed - visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-admin-l.html and select "Join or leave the list". ______________________________________________________________ To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE YOUR SETTINGS, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list". If you want to join the VADCFLL-ADMIN-L mailing list - to which FLL administrative announcements will be distributed - visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-admin-l.html and select "Join or leave the list".