AnnouncementScrimmageFinal.html

Los Altos Robotics Scrimmage Teams,

It is only a few days until the October 17 Scrimmage at Covington and Oak Avenue Schools.

The Scrimmage is a great place for the teams to run their robots in a competition environment, enjoy a fun event, and get lots of ideas for making even better robots.  Don't worry if your robot doesn't do as much as you'd like.  You are not alone.  Bring your kits and work on your robot while you're there.  Take advantage of getting experience running against other teams even if your robot is a low scorer.  Your team stands the chance of gaining the most from the enthusiasm and cross-pollination of ideas at the scrimmage.

The schedule for the Scrimmage is further down in this email.  Every one is welcome to show up at 12:45 PM and help set up.  As soon as we can, we will open the practice tables for the teams to use until the 1:30 PM opening ceremonies.  We will end the matches at 4:00 PM, hand out a few awards, and then we will all help take down the room and clean up.  Everything should be done by 5:00 PM.

Teams will compete in any order.  As the teams are ready, they can put their names on the scoring board to indicate that they are ready to compete.  Once two teams are ready, they will move to an open field and start a match at the direction of the referee.  As soon as a team is finished competing in their match, they may put their team’s name back on the board for another match or wait and put it on later.  The matches will continue until the competition time is over.  Teams can run as many times as they want.  We will even give out an award for the team that runs the most times.  There will be other just for fun awards too.  Remember, the awards and participating in the Scrimmage are all for fun of it and for learning more about how FLL competitions work.  Between matches, teams are encouraged to work on their robots and use the practice fields.  Please share the practice fields with the other teams and try to limit your use of a practice table to five minutes if some other team wants to use it.

What to bring?

• Extension cords (long and short) and a plug strip.  We need to avoid overloading the plugs and creating trip hazards.
• Your robot(s).  While you can bring more than one robot to the Scrimmage, only one set of allowable parts (RCX, 3 motors, two touch sensors, two light sensors, etc.)  can be brought to the table for each match.
• Your robot kit(s) so that your team can improve the robot while they are there.
• If needed, a snack for eating outside and water to drink.

Referee Score Sheets

The attached Referee Score Sheets will be used at the Scrimmage and Local Competition.  As soon as your round ends, the Referee will write down the missions that you have scored points for on the Referee Score Sheet. The team will then be asked to review the scoring before the table is reset and the score sheet is taken up to the score keeper. Our goal is to have perfect scoring of all rounds. This review will be your only chance to change the score and it is very important that the teams help the Referees record the correct scoring. So please print out the Referee Score Sheet and have your team members become familiar with it so they can quickly and accurately go through it at the Scrimmage and Local Competition.  The Covington School Scrimmage will be scored using a new and improved scoring system and the Oak Avenue School Scrimmage will be scored using the same method as has been used the last three years.  Please be sure and print out the correct Referee Score Sheet for your team.  The file names have the Scrimmage location in their names.

Team Tournament Assignments

Here are the tournament assignments for the Covington and Oak Avenue School tournaments.

Covington School Event's Teams
#	Name	Coach(s) & Managers	School	# & Grade(s)	Year
1023	RoboPups	Lew Yobs	Graham Middle (MV) Covington Ponderos (SV)	4-6th & 1-5th	2
1189	Firebots	Diane Silverman	Almond	4-4th	1
1725	LEGOers	Tom Sartor	Almond & Santa Rita	6-5th	2
2269	Chickened Out	Edmond Macaluso	Covington & Bullis	3-6th & 1-8th	2
2889	20,000 Bricks	Tim Burks	Home School	3-5th & 3-7th	2
2955	Lego Population Controllers	Eric Muller/Melissa Lui	Covington, Nixon (PA), & Home School	5-5th	1
3171	Y Bots	Spencer James	Almond	4-4th & 2-6th	1
3294	Char Zars	James Morrin	Almond	2-4th	1
3493	5Bobcats	Ben Hua/Elizabeth Song	Santa Rita	4-4th & 1-5th	1
3522	StormRunners	Daphne Luong	Almond	6-4th	1
4011	Flying Vikings	John Dilley	Egan, Blach, & Cupertino Middle	3-7th & 1-8th	1
Oak Avenue School Event's Teams
#	Name	Coach(s) & Managers	School	# & Grade(s)	Year
411	LEGO Legends	Gordon Elder/Linda Runke	Oak & Loyola	4-6th	3
508	DogBots	Michael Schuh & Dave Lordemann	Blach	4-7th	4
1716	Rocking Robotics	Yanjie Dong	Oak	3-5th & 1-4th	2
1998	Tumbling Titanics	Scott Shearer & Mary Beth Pala	Oak & Almond	6-4th	1
2676	Lords of the Legos	Martin Van Ryswyk	Oak	5-5th	1
2828	SEABEES	Suzanne Montgomery	Blach	4-7th	2
3070	Lego Stars	Ragu Bhargava	Oak	4-5th & 2-6th	2
3229	Gadget Group	Mike Murray	International School of the Pen. (PA) & Meyrholz (Cupertiono)	3-5th	1
3407	Defy Gravity	Bill Welden	Blach	3-8th	3
3808	Supersonic Turtles	Ogen Perry	Hausner	4-4th	1
3968	AquaBots	Tom Trembois	Springer	4-6th	1
4102	Sea Cucumbers	Vaishali Khandekar	Loyola, Covington & Bullis	2-4th & 2-5th	1

Please check this list carefully and let me know at  Michael@Boardsailor.com if you know of any other Los Altos and Los Altos Hills teams or if your team will not be participating in either or both events.  Please register missing teams at http://www.losaltosrobotics.org/XForm/RegisterTeam so we can collect the team information.  Send Michael@Boardsailor.com any other corrections to the list.  The FLL team number is the number that FLL gave the person who registered the team.  The team names can be changed during the season but if we are notified too late before an event, materials will already be printed with the old name.

Best of luck to your teams and thanks for participating,
  Michael and Tim

Michael Schuh wrote:

Los Altos Scrimmage Teams,

We're looking forward to seeing all the Los Altos Robotics teams on Sunday October 16 for the Los Altos Robotics Scrimmages at Covington and Oak Avenue Elementary Schools in Los Altos.  Last year we had one Scrimmage and Local Competition at Blach Intermediate School.  This year we have more teams so we are going to have the Los Altos Scrimmages and regional qualifying Los Altos Local Competitions at Covington and Oak Avenue Elementary Schools in Los Altos.  Team location assignments will be announced after the September 27 Los Altos Robotics Board of Directors meeting.  Here are some more details:

Location:  The Los Altos Scrimmages will take place in the Multi Purpose rooms at Covington Elementary School which is located at 205 Covington Road, Los Altos, CA 94024 and at Oak Avenue Elementary School which is located at 1501 Oak Avenue, Los Altos, CA 94024.  The Multi Purpose rooms face the parking lots at both schools and are easy to locate once you are at the schools.  Here are links to Google maps for Covington Elementary School and Oak Avenue Elementary School.

Cost and Payment Details:  The cost is $50 per team for both the Los Altos Scrimmage and regional qualifying Los Altos Local Competition.  Payment is due by September 24, 2005.  Follow the registration and payment details at http://www.losaltosrobotics.org:8080/Main/FLLSignups#TeamLAreg.

No Judging at the Scrimmage:  There will not be any judging at the Scrimmage.  But just for the fun of it, there will be certificates for things like the most times up at the table, highest score, and most improved.  The final set of certificates to be given out will be decided on the day of the Scrimmage.  At the Scrimmage, the teams will get to compete with their robots and benefit from the experience of preparing for an event and enjoy a cross pollination of ideas.  Remember, we have the Scrimmage for the fun of it and to practice participating in and putting on a competition.

Research Project:  Teams that participate in the Research Project part of the challenge will be judged at the November 19 Local Competition and not at the Scrimmage.  There is an award for the best research project and it contributes to earning the Directors Award.  Participating in the Research Project part of the challenge is optional.  Many teams participate in this part of the challenge and learn from it and enjoy it.  Some first year teams pass on it because they are learning a huge amount as rookie teams and decide not to devote time to this part of the challenge.

Food:  No food or drinks (except water) inside the multi purpose rooms.

Contacts: 

• Covington School Events: Tim Burks, Home (650) 948-3034, and Tim@LosAltosRobotics.Org 
• Oak Avenue School Events: Michael Schuh, Home (650) 965-8037, Work (650) 604-1460, and Michael@LosAltosRobotics.Org

Current Event Schedules:

• Sunday October 16 at Oak Avenue and Covington Elementary Schools  - Scrimmage: A scrimmage is a fun event where teams get together and run their robots against each other.  At a scrimmage, the teams will be able to get an idea as to how well they are doing relative to other teams and benefit from a cross pollination of ideas.  Because the Scrimmage happens half way through the season, most teams will only be able to run a few of the missions.  They will also be able to continue working on their robots during the event.  There will be up to twelve teams participating at each of the two locations.  Here is a tentative schedule:

12:45 Room and table set up.


 1:30 Opening ceremonies – Presenting the colors and sing Star Spangled Banner.
 1:35 Game description -  Go over the rules for the benefit of both the spectators and the team members and give a description of how the scrimmage will work.
 1:40 Team introductions.
 1:45 Teams sign-up on the scoring board and the matches begin.  We should be able to complete a 2.5 minute match and be ready for another match to start every six minutes.  With one competition table, this will allow for 10 matches per hour with 2 teams per match which will allow all of the teams to have plenty of opportunities to run their robots and watch other teams.
2:45 Break
3:00 Matches resume.
4:00 The rounds end, award category winners are determined, and the certificates are completed.  Teams can start to pull their materials together while this is being done.
 4:15 Announce the winners.


 4:25 Ask for volunteers to put on the November 19 Local Competition.
 4:30 Thank volunteers and Blach Intermediate School.  Take down the room.
 5:00 Depart.

• Saturday November 19 at Oak Avenue and Covington Elementary Schools - Local Competition:   Each of these locations is where 10 to 12 teams will compete against each other and certificates will be given for the many different categories.  Judges will be observing and speaking to each team during the tournament.  Descriptions of the judging categories are in the FLL Team Manual and on the FLL website. Some of the participating teams will qualify to participate in the Northern California State competition and the rest of the teams will be finished with competing in the 2005 FLL season.  Here is a tentative schedule:
12:30 Room and table setup.
1:15   Opening ceremonies
1:20   Introduction to FIRST and all the teams.  Overview of the rules
1:35   Round A (40 minutes)
2:15   Round B (40 minutes)


   10 min     Break.  Demonstration by FIRST High School or Botball Robotics teams.
3:05   Round C (35 minutes)
3:40   Round D (35 minutes)
   10 min     Break
4:25   Robot demonstrations by best performing and note worthy robots.  At the same time the Judges will meet and determine award category winners.  Prepare Certificates.
5:00   Announce the winners and thank volunteers
5:30   Take down room
6:00   Depart

• Sunday January 14 at San Jose City College in San Jose - The Northern California FLL State Tournament:  64 teams out of several hundred in the Bay Area will participate in the No. CA FLL State Tournament.  The event will run all day.  All are welcome to attend as spectators.  There is no fee for spectators to attend.  Information for the event is at http://www.playingatlearning.org/NCaFLL/2005/index.html.  San Jose City College is located at 2100 Moorpark Avenue, San Jose, CA 95128.  This tournament is made possible because of the efforts of a small group of very dedicated volunteers headed up by Mark and Jill Edelman.  The expenses for this event are only partially funded by the team registration fees and the rest is funded by contributions.  Please help Mark and Jill out by contributing to their 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation by following the directions in the "Donating to Support NCaFLL" section near the bottom of the NCaFLL (Northern California FIRST LEGO League) page.
  

More information will be sent out before the Scrimmages and Local Competitions.  It is going to be a great season. 

Thank you for participating in FLL,

  Michael and Tim