Post Kickoff Information

A huge “Thank you” to the staff, partners, teams, and volunteers that make each season’s Kickoff possible!

Translated Manuals

While the English version of the manual is the official version, unofficial French, Spanish, Turkish, Portuguese, Hebrew, and Simplified Chinese manuals are also available on the Translated Manuals section of the Season Materials page. Team Updates are published by FIRST^® in English only and not typically incorporated into the translated manuals.

Field Tour Videos

We showed the Field Tour videos at the end of the Kickoff broadcast, and I’ll mention them again here. The playlist also includes an additional video which shows more of the field interaction details which was not shown during the Kickoff broadcast. These videos are a great opportunity to learn some details about the field that teams will see at events.

Playing Field Assets

We also have field assets available on the Playing Field webpage that include CAD Models, Drawings, Team Elements and additional field assets provided by our suppliers. The assets provided by Suppliers were neither developed nor validated by FIRST, and differences between fields represented in these tools and the official field may exist.

Team Updates

As mentioned in Section 1.8 of the Game Manual, Team Updates are posted on Tuesdays and Fridays beginning today through February 27. After that, Team Updates continue to be posted on Tuesdays only and end on April 21.

Team Updates are posted on the Season Materials webpage and anyone 18+ can sign up for email notifications as Team Updates are posted. Those who subscribe to the Team Updates will receive an email with a link to the latest Team Update shortly after the Team Update has been posted publicly.

KitBot

The KitBot is back! We believe this is a great starter robot for teams, and there are so many aspects that teams can iterate on to improve this robot. We can’t wait to see variations of this KitBot as we travel to events this season. A huge thank you to all of the suppliers who donated components to make the KitBot easier to build for teams this year. We want to share a few key points here that are important to all teams building the KitBot:

• Check out the KitBot webpage which has several videos and tons of documentation including the Build Instruction, drawings, example code, code explanation guides, CAD, and more!
• The KitBot was designed to keep things very simple, which means there are opportunities to iterate and improve on the existing capabilities it has. With this in mind, teams may choose to add additional components to allow the robot to hold more fuel, climb on the tower, or more. Teams can reference the KitBot Enhancement/Iteration Guide for a process to explore these improvements.
  • This resource can be used by any team this season, regardless of if you build the KitBot or not. It helps outline a possible process teams could follow to brainstorm and decide on possible improvements to the KitBot, and it can be applied to any robot design.

Questions & Answers

The official FIRST^® Robotics Competition Q&A opens Wednesday, January 14, at Noon Eastern Time. The Q&A is the place to ask your questions about the game and event rules, awards, drawings, inspection, and get official answers.

Anyone can make their own account in the Q&A system to subscribe to questions and be notified when answers are published. To get “asking” permissions with your account (limited to 1 account/team), you have to attach your team’s authorization code to your account. An account isn’t needed to just read and search existing questions/answers.

Please don’t forget to search for your question first. You may find it’s already been asked and answered (and if it’s already been asked but not answered, you don’t need to ask it again – just follow that question, and you’ll see when the answer’s posted).

A guide for how to use the Q&A can be found on the Q&A System section of the Season Materials webpage.