Skills Challenge Scores
What a rush to the deadline! As folks know, last Thursday was the deadline to submit and lock INFINITE RECHARGESM at Home Skills Challenge scores, and we saw lots of teams coming in during those final hours. It was fun to watch those leaderboards fill up Thursday (even though last-minute submissions are not encouraged 
)! Congratulations to all who submitted, we know it was super challenging this year to do anything as a team, especially work with a robot. We are reviewing videos now, and as we say in the manual, scores are subject to change through April 23rd. So even if your team is top in its group, don’t be popping those cans of naturally flavored seltzer water in celebration just yet!
Announcement Date for FIRST Innovation Challenge presented by Qualcomm Semi-Finalists
Did your team participate in the Innovation Challenge this year? Cool beans. You will find out Friday, April 16th if you are a Semi-Finalist! We will announce in a FIRST Robotics Competition blog (hey, that’s this blog!) and you will also get an email with instructions for the next round.
It’s important to note the Semi-Finalists must turn in an enhanced submission before the next deadline of April 21st at 11:59 PM Eastern Time. You can find what you will need to submit in Section 4.3.1 of the At Home Challenge Manual. I know this is not much time for teams to prepare for the next round and make their submission, and I’m sorry about that. We looked at extending this deadline but had concerns with all the subsequent activities that needed to take place in this challenge, which culminates at the Global Innovation Awards. You may want to consider doing some early prep work for that next stage just in case you see you team number listed as a Semi-Finalist on Friday!
Other Award Announcements
All other award announcements will be made during your local award shows. Local award shows will cover all awards for every team in the Region, regardless of the judging groups to which they were assigned. See this page for the award show schedules. We will fill in the details on those ‘coming soon’ entries as we hear from local show organizers.
Larry Retiring
…but as we all know, there is no exit strategy from FIRST, and we can’t wait to see you at events!
Finally, I should have said this weeks ago, but I’m assuming many of you have seen the announcement that Larry Cohen, President of FIRST, retired on March 29th. We wish Larry a healthy, happy, and long retirement and thank him for his work while he was with us! We also look forward to working with Chris Rake as Interim FIRST President.
Frank