Holly – and the VA-DC FLL region,

We (Karen and Krystian) spend a lot of time between the end of one season and the start of the next - coordinating venues, trailers, and our ability to support tournaments around the state.  With changing school policies, venues, and local tournament directors – it is a BIG job.  Often we can’t lock down a venue/date until the school staff return from summer.  We typically have 25 qualifying tournaments during the month of November – that’s 8 tournaments per weekend.

We’ll have the schedule locked down and on the website as soon as possible.  You can expect that there will be about 8 tournaments each of the first 3 weekends in November (scattered all over the state).  Registration will typically open on or about October 1st.  You’ll pick your top 3 choices and we’ll do our best to assign you to your highest priority choice.

Some tips for tournament selection:

Don’t be afraid to go on the first weekend – nobody is “ready” so it’s a level field.  You’re only competing against the teams at that tournament.  Scores are generally lower the first week but the first week winning teams have the opportunity (3 weeks) to watch other teams, modify their robot, improve their project, and be really prepared for the state championship.

Do make sure your team has paid the regional registration fee ($125) and have entered all the necessary team registration data into the VA-DC FLL website.  We collect different data than FIRST because we are the only region that has two age divisions so – yes, the age data is necessary so that we get you in the correct age division for the tournament.  

The Championship tournament will be here in Harrisonburg on the first weekend in December.  It will start bright and early on Saturday and end around 5 pm on Sunday.  Significant change this year is that we’re planning to do ALL judging on Saturday.  That should speed things up on Sunday – more details in the coming weeks as we get closer.

FIRST split the World Championship so that more teams can participate.  This year there will be a Championship in Houston as well as one in St. Louis – end of April, first of May timeframe. 

Hope this helps.

Nick

From: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of "hollys ." <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: "hollys ." <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thursday, September 1, 2016 at 7:29 AM
To: vadcfll <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [VADCFLL-L] Tournament Dates?

Have I missed this, or are tournament dates scheduled yet for November and December? Thanks! -- Holly S.


To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list".
VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ANNOUNCEMENTS-L. Visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-announcements-l.html to subscribe.

To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list".
VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ANNOUNCEMENTS-L. Visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-announcements-l.html to subscribe.