Qualifier Event Pre-registration and Registration

Fall Qualifiers are now full.

Pre-registration for Spring Qualifying tournaments will begin in late November 2021.

In pre-registration, teams fill out an online form to indicate their qualifier preferences for the upcoming season.  Round 2 of pre-registration will enable teams to register for any of the remaining qualifiers in the 2021-2022 “Freight Frenzy” season.

There is no charge for pre-registration, and completing the form does not register a team for any events.  This simply establishes a team’s priority claim for available event spots.  Events will generally be assigned to teams based on when form responses are received and the availability of event spots.

Even though teams are not required to pay event registration fees to pre-register, teams must pay their $275 national registration fee with FIRST (via the firstinspires.org Dashboard) before they will be assigned an event.  (Teams that have received a Texas Workforce Commission grant from FIRST in Texas will be assumed to have paid their national fees, even if the funding hasn’t officially been sent yet.)

The national registration cost is separate from tournament entry fees.  For 2021-2022, hybrid qualifiers will be $175 per team.  

As event assignments are made the team contacts will receive “reservation tickets” for their assigned events; the reservation tickets will contain instructions about completing registration and payment options for the events.  Unclaimed reservations will expire sometime prior to the event date and the spots released to other teams on waitlists or that request additional events.

For more information about qualifier registration, contact lcherryholmes@firstinspires.org .

Q: How many events can a team compete at?

A; FIRST places no hard limit on the number of qualifiers a team can attend, but a team can only advance from the first three they compete at. So there’s a practical upper limit.

In North Texas, we can only guarantee each team one event, and we try to make sure that each team has an opportunity for it to be later in the season if they desire that. Any additional events beyond one, either early or late-season, are made on a “space available” basis. We try to give as many teams a two-event season as we can, but the size of our region (plus other considerations) means we can’t guarantee that every team will get two events in a season.

We use the pre-registration process to allow teams to express their preference for their “primary” late-season event. Once we’ve processed teams’ requests for their primary events, we begin allocating any remaining spots to teams based on their preferences in the waitlists. If there are multiple teams asking for spots at the same event, we prioritize giving the spots to teams holding only a primary event spot. After that, any remaining spots at an event can be given to teams even if they already have two events.

In a typical season, teams receiving three North Texas qualifiers happens rarely, and those are typically teams that waitlist for events in lower demand than others.

For the 2021-2022 season, we’re likely to be back to the situation where most teams will get only two events (one early season and one late season).

We are always looking for volunteers for FIRST Tech Challenge events in the North Texas Region.  Volunteers can take a variety of roles, including Judges, Referees, Score Trackers, Inspectors, Hospitality, and more.

Judges select team award recipients through interaction with teams. Documentation regarding team background information is provided to familiarize judges with teams.  Interview and observe teams in the judging rooms, the pit, and on the playing field.  Judging is generally an all-day commitment; the morning is spent interviewing teams and after that the judges deliberate and visit individually with teams to determine event winners.

Referees observe team matches, identifies rule violations, and “call” them. Referees help the competitors to avoid breaking the rules of the Game. Referees participate in deliberations regarding contested calls, working directly through the Head Referee.  Referees are needed when matches start (usually around 10:30am) and for the remainder of the event.  Referees can also volunteer as Inspectors.

Robot Inspectors and Field Inspectors are responsible to ensure every robot follows the guidelines outlined in FIRST Tech Challenge Game Manual Part 1 and are ready to compete on the field. The inspection process involves filling out a checklist for every robot and placing a label or other unique tag on the robot after it passes inspection.  Inspections generally take place in the early morning and are finished before matches begin (usually around 10:30am), which means that Inspectors can also volunteer to be Referees.

There are many more roles available, including Announcers, Queuers, Runners, Registration / Checkin, Hospitality, and more.

To volunteer at a North Texas FTC event,

• Create a FIRST account
• Apply to one of the events below, or search for an event via the Volunteer Dashboard
• For more information, see the volunteer registration guide

For convenience, you can directly apply for an event by following one of the links below (coming soon)

• Dec 4 – Marcus High School Qualifier, Marcus High School, Flower Mound
• Dec 11 – Lamar High School Qualifier, Lamar High School, Arlington