Meadowbrook Robotics
Meadowbrook Middle School Robotics team
Meadowbrook Robotics

FLL SCRIMMAGE

Hosted by Team 11128 Inspiration and (tentatively) Manna’s Martial Arts

FLL Scrimmage date: TBD – All Day Event

    1. What is it?

The FLL scrimmage is an event hosted by Team Inspiration for eight years. This event has been running for two years in the Manna’s Martial Arts facility, we are looking for a successful third. The event is aimed in preparing young and even veteran teams for the thrill and pressure of competition. This is also a perfect time to invite family and friends over to see what your team has been doing for the past couple of months.

A scrimmage is a practice competition.  It is run exactly like a real competition but on a smaller scale, it has all three judging sessions and the robot performance runs.

    1. Why is it important?

One way to improve standing in FLL competition is through practice. Practice of driver performance, presentations, and the core values activities are all essential in your team’s success. This is why Team Inspiration puts on this event year after year. Our goal is to assist your team to get the most out of the FLL experience. This will also provide your team a chance to collaborate with other teams and understand their lessons learned to improve your team’s robot or project presentation. Additionally this will prepare you for the format of a real FLL competition.

    1. Where is it held?

Team Inspiration will be holding their scrimmage at 12285B World Trade Drive, San Diego, California 92128

    1. Who hosts it for MBMS?

Team Inspiration and Manna’s Martial Arts

    1. Who all attend?

All MBMS teams are expected to participate.  A number of outside communities/school teams will be invited by Team Inspiration as space available to provide MBMS teams additional exposure.  

    1. What is the parent commitment needed for Scrimmage?

FIRST events run off of volunteers. It is critical for team Inspiration to get all the help that they can get to ensure the event runs smoothly. We ask for two adults volunteers per team, they cannot be main coaches. Volunteer experience is not necessary.  We will train the volunteers. Will have a volunteers meeting couple days before the scrimmage and again on the day prior to the scrimmage.

We will need at least 4 FLL tables for the scrimmage in addition to the FLL table team Inspiration will provide. We will need 5 sets of the mat and field elements, one is for robot design judging and the others are for the robot performance competition.

One thing we learned is that committed parents will be able to help their kids that much more.  Volunteering will allow the parents to understand what their kids are learning and be able to assist and guide.  It also lets the kids know that the parents are engaged and genuinely interested in their activities and well being, a win-win situation.

    1. How ready do we need to be? Is there a certain number of missions we must solve by then?

You should come as prepared as you can. My team suggests that you try to accomplish the amount of missions that you will want to perform at the competition so you can receive feedback from my team members and other teams. It is much better to have consistent programs than have too many programs that don’t necessarily work as well. But you will want to at least run through your presentations and FLL mission runs 5 times each to get team members to understand the basics so the judges and the referees will be able to give better feedback to the team’s performance.

If your team have nothing ready, you still want to show up so your team can learn from others.

    1. What do people do for lunch?

Teams, like in competition, will manage their own lunch arrangement.  If interested, we can set up pizza, drinks, snack at a reasonable price to cover the cost.  

    1. If a team wants to attend more than one scrimmage, where can they go?

Official FIRST scrimmage event, and other Team Inspiration host/co-host scrimmage events.

    1. What does this event mean to Team Inspiration 11128

The success of teams attended the scrimmage is what inspired team Inspiration to continue hosting years after years.  We have created many qualified tournament champions including runner up champion at the S. CA Final.

It allows teams to share what they learned and what they struggled.  The scrimmage allowed members/judges/parents to see up close and personal that are not available in formal competition.  We truly believe feedback is important in the learning process.

  1. Lastly, we have fun.

Contact information of Team Inspiration: 11128inspiration@gmail.com