By now, many of you have probably heard that the 2022 FIRST Championship will be held in a single location, Houston, Texas, USA.
We understand that while some teams will welcome a single Championship event, others may be disappointed that we are unable to have competition in both Houston and Detroit this season. Due to pre-existing contractual commitments, large indoor and outdoor footprints, and many hotel options with proximity to the convention center, Houston made the most sense as the host location.
As Chris Rake notes in the announcement, the location of a team’s traditional ‘home’ Championship will not be a factor in eligibility. This means eligibility requirements will not take a team’s previous Championship location into consideration. This will be a single event taking place over the days already scheduled (April 20 – April 23, 2022). Due to this, and footprint constraints, we will not be able to host as many FIRST Robotics Competition teams as we have between the two Championship locations in the past. At this time, we are planning to host approximately 450 FIRST Robotics Competition teams.
This means the eligibility criteria themselves must change, something on which we are currently working. Districts and Regionals will qualify fewer teams for Championship than they have traditionally. We are also reviewing eligibility for our traditionally pre-qualified teams. I know folks are anxious to hear details, and my plan is to be able to share the new eligibility criteria within the next several weeks. I hope folks can appreciate that we shared this news as soon as we could, even though there are still a lot of details to work through.
We are working with Districts and other Program Delivery Partners on eligibility criteria and trying to find solutions to issues presented by qualifying events that will be happening the week before the Houston Championship.
Finally, to answer a question we have seen the question pop up, we are still determining what COVID protocols will be in place in Houston.
I will continue to provide updates as items are finalized. Despite this challenge, I’m looking forward to a fantastic season!
Frank