Kickoff 2020

Thank you to all teams, mentors, sponsors, and volunteers who could make our 2020 SoCal / Greater LA FTC Kickoff! While I would have preferred to see all your great faces in person, I was so pleased to see we had over 400 people join our on-line event! A big hats off to the dozen presenters, dozen moderators, my moderator Erin Rehard, and to Patrick Brophy and Ellen McIsaac for giving us an up close look at the field. Most importantly, a giant “Thank you!” to Amanda Sullivan who was the key planner for the 12 presentation topics, the brains behind enabling us on the Discord platform, and our tech point person for our broadcast. THANK YOU!

YouTube and Discord

If you missed the events and broadcast – not to worry! The Kickoff livestream and workshop videos can now be watched on our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/Socalftc.)

We will be leaving the Discord server up to broadcast additional workshops throughout the season. So, even though the Kickoff is over, we still want you to join our LAFTC Discord server (if you haven’t already) by going to: https://discord.gg/RrKMknf. It is a great resource to connect and collaborate with other teams, ask questions, gain knowledge, and figure out the latest news. Discord is the easiest way to connect with the LAFTC community. Each week, we will be hosting a workshop focusing on different aspects of FIRST. We will post region specific news updates about our weekly workshops. The sessions will be hosted over zoom and YouTube live. A YouTube link will be posted on Discord and Facebook. Videos will be posted to our YouTube channel if you cannot attend.

2020 Format

The format for LAFTC this year will be Remote Play. That means individual performances (no alliances or team play) and scores will be uploaded to the Cloud. Please read the Game Manual 1 and 2 / Remote Play on the FIRST website for more details on Remote Play.

The format will be Scrimmages and Qualifier Tournaments (instead of Leagues and ILTs) to buy as much time as possible before competitive play so teams who cannot meet until the second semester have time to build. Please refer to the PowerPoint slides for LAFTC kickoff and remote events.

Registration

If you think you might play this year but are not yet sure, go ahead and start the registration process anyway so we know you are considering it. If you know for sure you want to participate this year, you can register now with FIRST and then with LAFTC.

Timeline (subject to change)

  • September 13                       LAFTC Virtual Kickoff and Registration Opens
  • November 16-20                  Remote Scrimmage #1
  • December 14-18                  Remote Scrimmage #2
  • December 5                          Kickoff Reboot (Update on any changes from FIRST)
  • January 20                             Last day to register and pay for your Qualifier
  • January 25-29                      Remote Scrimmage #3
  • February 15-19                    Remote Scrimmage #4
  • March 6, 14, 20, 28             Qualifying Tournaments – planning for remote events (7 day window prior to QT to submit scores)
  • April 24                                 Championship – planning for a remote event           
  • July TBD                                Worlds – planning for an in-person event in Houston

If you have questions, feel free to reach out to community@firsttechsocal.org.

Thank you and we look forward to ‘seeing’ you this year!

Theresa Klemme and Patrick Brophy, Program Delivery Partners for the SoCal / Greater Los Angeles FTC Region