BIOBUZZ Competition Manual Preview Release

Competition Manual Preview is Here!

The BIOBUZZ^TM presented by RTX Competition Manual Preview Release (V0) is now available. You can find it on the FIRST^® Tech Challenge Resources page.

Similar to previous seasons, this version of the Competition Manual includes most of the non-game-specific information for this season so that FIRST Tech Challenge teams can get an early start on planning for the season.

The complete BIOBUZZ Competition Manual will be released on Saturday, September 12^th after the Kickoff broadcast airs on YouTube.

Check out the Get Started with FIRST Tech Challenge page for tools to get started and if you’re looking for more ways to start building for BIOBUZZ check out our blog on Skill Builders. 

For BIOBUZZ, the format of the Competition Manual is mostly staying the same.

• Bold Green rules with a leading asterisk (*) are “evergreen” rules – meaning they are largely the same from year to year with only the game specific details changing.

• Bold Orange rules are season specific and vary significantly from year to year.

For this season, you may notice some significant additions and changes to wording.

Many changes were made to help us address our dual goals of maintaining FIRST Tech Challenge as a high-quality, competitive, capstone FIRST^® program and ensure that the program remains accessible to new students, coaches, and volunteers. Both of these sections are rooted in the FIRST Core Values and FIRST Ethos of Gracious Professionalism.

When the full Competition Manual for BIOBUZZ is released at Kickoff, teams will find that the rules are written to emphasize intended gameplay and make it simpler for participants and volunteers to understand the spirit and intent of the rule. Our goal is to enable event volunteers to make good-faith judgement calls at events instead of writing rules that are highly detailed and overly complex that try to cover every scenario a volunteer may encounter. We are also providing event volunteers with an escalation path to use if they feel they need support during an event.

Teams should make sure to read the updated Competition Manual in its entirely – and don’t assume that just because something was true in previous seasons that it’s true this season as well. We’ve highlighted some of the major changes below:

Section 1: The Spirit of the Competition

• • This section is a “must read” for this season. New content has been added outlining what it means to be a FIRST team and the standard for how to be a strong competitor while also treating one another with respect and kindness. Included is the Competition Integrity Contract (CIC), which outlines principles to protect the integrity of the competition while also providing a great experience for teams of all levels.

  • We recommend reviewing this section with your entire team to ensure they understand what makes being part of a FIRST team special.

Section 3: Inspection

• • Additional information about what to expect during the inspection process has been added.

  • Several rules which described inspection procedures and expectations were removed. Descriptions of these are now in the accompanying text instead of in specific rules.
    

Section 6: Awards

• • The Structured Interview is now the Initial Interview and the team judging experience may be different in certain events and regions. The initial interviews may either be: 

    • scheduled in-person,
    • unscheduled in-person, or
    • remote
      

Full information can be found in Section 6 and additional documentation coming soon. 

Section 12: Robot Construction Rules

• Many of the robot rules have been reorganized to match the new additions in Section 1.

• Several rules which included recommendations for robot construction and best practices were removed. These guidelines will be made available to teams outside the Competition Manual in educational resources.

• Several rules have been combined with similar rules and simplified.

• Highlights to specific changes to rules compared to DECODE include the following.

  • • Maximum number of allowed servos is reduced to 8

    • Removed the rule restricting allowed gamepads.

  • Expansion limits are back – more details will be released at Kickoff