Important Season Update - Game Manual Changes

Hello FIRST Tech Challenge Teams!

We have some exciting changes coming your way for the 2024-2025 INTO THE DEEP℠ season.

Game Manual – New Format

The upcoming season’s game manual has undergone some significant changes. In past seasons, the game manuals were split into two separate manuals. Game Manual Part 1 contained tournament information, robot construction rules, awards, and advancement criteria which was released in July. Game Manual Part 2 was everything related to the current season’s game that was released at kickoff.

This season the manual will be one single manual, called the Competition Manual. There will be an early release in July that contains robot construction rules and competition eligibility. This release will have placeholders for all the season specific information, which will be released at kickoff on September 7^th, 2024.

Terminology Changes

In order to better align with other FIRST programs, FIRST Tech Challenge has made some noteworthy changes to some of the defined terms you may be used to. Below are some examples, but make sure to read through the entire manual for all of the changes!

Also note that the format of defined terms has changed from Italics to ALL CAPS throughout the manual.

Rule Format Changes

Below is an example of the new rule format you will see in the new Competition Manual. Here’s what’s changing:

• Rule numbering conventions will change. Stay tuned for more!
• Headlines will be used for each rule as a brief summary of what the rule covers.
  • Green Headlines are used for evergreen rules; or rules that relatively do not change from season to season
  • Orange headlines are used for game specific rules
• Orange boxes are used after the rule as a way to provide context or further insight to the reasoning behind a rule. Orange boxes do not carry the weight of the rule.
• Not shown: Violations of a rule will be below the text of each rule

 

Team Updates

New this season, FIRST Tech Challenge will introduce Team Updates. Team Updates are used to notify the FIRST Tech Challenge community of revisions to season documents. This could be game rule clarifications, updates to field drawings, or other important season announcements.

We will still use the Q&A system from previous years to allow teams to ask clarifying questions, but answers in the Q&A system will no longer supersede the rules in the game manual. Any change or clarification to the rules based on a question in the Q&A system will be reflected in the Team Update and the competition manual will be updated.

The competition manual will outline the frequency of Team Updates, how they are communicated, as well as where each update will be posted.

Mark Your Calendars!

Please keep an eye out on Wednesday, July 31, at 12:00pm EDT for the first release of the new Competition Manual. We will also release a new blog post with the manual that will cover some of the more significant robot construction rules that teams must be aware of when preparing for their robot build season!

Call to Action

As you can see, there will be some very significant changes coming this season. Please make sure to read through the new Competition Manual this summer to help you become familiar with the new rules, new format, new terms, and overall new layout.