2024-2025 Game Set Order Instructions
May 1, 2024
Forecasting game piece sales for FIRST® Robotics Competition is always a challenge. Each season FIRST® game design sources game pieces and works with vendors to ensure availability in the Kit of Parts and for teams to purchase. Vendors use historic sales data to forecast team sales for the upcoming season. Last year, lack of supply of note game pieces caused a significant impact to teams, affecting their ability to prototype and test robot designs throughout the season. We’re implementing two changes to help address the issues from last year. First, we’re shifting the additional game pieces from FIRST Choice into the Season Specific box, so all teams will receive additional game pieces.
Second, to help forecast and mitigate the risk of too little supply, AndyMark is opening pre-orders for one of the game pieces for REEFSCAPESM presented by Haas today. Game pieces ordered prior to November 1, 2024 are guaranteed to ship the week following Kickoff. (Note that this doesn’t mean that the only way to get the game pieces is through the pre-order. We expect to have game pieces available for purchase throughout the season. The pre-order date is based on the latest date that we could place a secondary order and have the game pieces available prior to Kickoff.)
Teams need details about the game pieces in order to make informed decisions on game piece purchases. So, we’re sharing as much information as we can now to assist teams with their purchasing decisions while still keeping some game piece details a surprise for kickoff.
REEFSCAPE has two distinct game pieces. Robots will be allowed to hold one of each game piece at a time.
Game Piece 1
Each team will receive two of Game Piece 1 in the Season Specific box.
Game Piece 1 will not be offered for pre-order. Domestically, the exact game piece can be acquired locally. AndyMark will have Game Piece 1 available for team purchase after Kickoff, and AndyMark's international distributors will be offered the opportunity to have them available at Kickoff. Our concern is that offering Game Piece 1 for pre-order would lead to a lot of teams being upset that they are paying high shipping costs for a locally available item. We expect a stable and easily replenishable inventory of Game Piece 1 due to the ubiquity of the item.
Game Piece 1 will be AndyMark part number am-5601.
Game Piece 2
Each team will receive two of Game Piece 2 in the Season Specific box.
The availability of Game Piece 2 is similar to the game pieces from the last few games. It’s manufactured overseas with properties specific to REEFSCAPE. While similar items are available from other sources, the only place to get the official Game Piece 2 is in the Kit of Parts or from AndyMark.
Game Piece 2 is being offered as single items with quantity discounts, with a maximum discount for a box of 20, which is two more than a full field. Each alliance can interact with as many as 9 of Game Piece 2 during Autonomous Mode.
Game Piece 2 will be AndyMark part number am-5602. Game Piece 2 is available for presale orders at: www.andymark.com/FRCpresale. Game piece pre-orders are not eligible for return, nor can the order be combined to ship with other AndyMark orders. Payment methods for the pre-orders cannot be changed after payment has been received, nor can the order be combined to ship with other AndyMark orders.
A huge “Thank you” to AndyMark for helping implement this option for the 2025 season!