Preferencing Round 2 Approaching Soon

As we announced in previous blogs, the FIRST^® Premier Event and FIRST^® Championship Event advancement process this year has been updated and is now built into the FIRST^® Tech Challenge event management portal, FTC Scoring.

As a high-level summary: this year after Regional Championship results are accepted by FIRST^® Headquarters, emails are sent to all advancing teams with instructions on how to submit their preferencing list in FTC Scoring. We also send emails to the next ~25% of teams encouraging them to make an event preference list in case teams ranked above them decline. Each region’s Program Delivery Partners receive a summary email of the teams invited to submit a preference list from their region.

Lead Coaches can log into FTC Scoring at any time and submit a ranked choice list of events they would like to attend. Coaches do not have to wait until after their Regional Championship to submit their preference list!

What Happened in Round 1 Preferencing?

Since we last blogged about preferencing, we have completed Round 1 of event assignments. Let’s take a moment to talk about the details for Round 1.

In Round 1 we had 90 eligible teams from 8 Regional Championships.

• 78 of the 90 teams submitted a preference list, including 8 declines.
• Advancement capacity created by a team that declined within a region was backfilled by the next highest ranked team from that region that submitted a list.
• 72 total teams were assigned to an event.

Of the 72 total teams that were assigned:

• 77% of teams were assigned to their first choice event.
• 92% of teams were assigned to either their first or second choice event, inclusive of FIRST Championship.
• 92% of teams assigned to Premier Events got their first choice of Premier Event, and 8% got their second.

The 2 teams that submitted a list but who were not matched to any events only selected the FIRST Championship and were ranked too low in the advancement order, so no capacity was available when it was their turn.

We were also able to accommodate 2 sets of sibling teams to ensure they could travel together based on the information that the teams provided.

Teams who were on the advancement list who were not matched or did not submit a list by the deadline for Round 1 were informed that that they did not match. These teams will have the opportunity to update their lists and be considered for one more round of preferencing before we remove them and move on to the next team(s) in the list. We may reevaluate this process for next year to best balance rewarding teams who performed well at events with getting teams confirmed into events in a timely manner.

What Happens with Declines?

This year, declines are submitted up front before events are assigned, which allows us to better match teams in ranked order to their preferred events. Event capacity that becomes available because teams that initially accepted an invitation later dropped from an event will not be returned to the individual region. FIRST Headquarters will backfill these slots to help meet our dual goals of equitable region representation at FIRST Championship and celebrating and showcasing the global nature of the program.

All event assignments are live and available on FTC-Events at the time of assignment.

Schedule for Round 2 and Beyond

Preferencing is split into several rounds. The number of slots available at each event per round is roughly relative to the percentage of advancing teams in that round. This ensures that all events will be available for Rounds 1-4 and most events will be available in the final round. Minor adjustments will be made for individual event open capacity based on geographic demands in each round.

The rounds are spaced out so that all teams get assigned to events in a timely manner starting in mid-January. Round 4 is the last round for inclusion in the FIRST Championship and the Final Round will be focused on events occurring after the FIRST Championship. These are the upcoming deadlines for advancement and preferencing lists:

Teams will get an email when their Regional Championship results are accepted and then again 24-48 hours before the Preferencing List Deadline.

We will be monitoring our event fill rate based on what percentage of teams/regions have played, and we will start inviting teams off the waitlist starting after Round 3.

Hey Lead Coach (Yes, You!)

You can submit your team’s preferencing list now! There is no need to wait for your Regional Championship event. If you advance, you will be emailed to remind you to check your list, and you can edit the list any time until we run the assignments, just make sure to “save” your changes!

If your team does not want to go to additional events this year, please please ‘decline’ your preferencing list so another team can have that opportunity as soon as possible!

“Why should I enter a list if I don’t know how my team will perform at our Regional Championship?”

In addition to being ready in case you advance, all teams who submit a preference list will be eligible to be invited off the global waitlist and your top selections will be shared with Premier Event hosts who are using a lottery system to invite additional teams.

Bonus Suggestion: While you’re logged in to FTC Scoring, you can also submit your team Avatar!