For the 2013 FIRST LEGO League Challenge season, NorCal FLL tournaments will be organized into 4 districts. As needed in each district, teams may have a two tier (qualifiers and then championship) OR a three tier (qualifiers, regionals, championship). At this time, we are only planning for a two tier for all districts but this could change if we get a large growth in one area.
For 2013, we are currently planning for ~30 qualifiers and 4 district championships. Dates and specific “districting” are currently being finalized. Additional information on the dates and locations will be published as the information is available.
Qualifiers: The preliminary tournaments are being planned for 12-24 teams and will be held in November. All teams interested in competing in Northern California may attend exactly one.
Regionals: [Only If Needed in a specific district] The secondary tournaments would be for 36 teams and would be held in December. A fixed percentage of teams selected from Qualifiers based on Advancement critieria would be invited to attend a regional.
Championship: The championship will host 48 teams and will be held in January or February.
Why Districts?
As the FLL Program has grown in Northern California, it has become increasingly difficult for teams to earn the opportunity to participate in more than one level of competition.
Additionally, FIRST is now giving guidance to the FLL Affiliate Partners (for NorCal FLL, Playing At Learning is the Affiliate Partner) that we should be providing the opportunity for additional competition chances to approximately 30%or more of our teams.
A system of multiple championships allows us to grow the program as needed to accomodate teams advancing, without requiring a Championship to become a HUGE event.
Additionally, the change will allow us to keep he Championship to a size that will allow the teams a more relaxed day, more opportunities to perform their robots, and more time with the judges. All three of these changes will allow us to address feedback we received from many teams, volunteers, referees and judges.
Advancement Criteria
All tournaments will be using the same criteria for determing the teams that earn the opportunity to advance to the next level of tournaments. The advancement criteria is the same as the one that was used last year and weights all core aspects of FIRST LEGO League equally.