Greetings Florida FTC Teams, Coaches, Volunteers, and Sponsors:

Welcome to the eighteenth (18) Florida FIRST Tech Challenge season (2022-23) and the game POWERPLAY^SM presented by Raytheon Technologies. FIRST team registration is currently open and by the middle of September we will start posting league events that you can register to attend by going to the www.flfirst.org website.  The POWERPLAY^SM game reveal will be on September 10, 2022. As part of the FIRST ENERGISE season, the FIRST Tech Challenge game will be about reimagining the future of sustainable energy and power. You can see the season teaser by watching the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-qwsMmkFwg

We are also happy to announce that the current plan is that all league events will be traditional, in person events.  Florida is NOT planning to host any Remote events. The leadership of the 8 Florida leagues (AeroCoast, Gulf Coast, North East, OneClay, ROBOT, Orlando Robotics (formally Tesla), Space Coast, and South Florida) are busy working to finalize league meet locations and dates.  Starting in September, expect to see update emails from me and your league leader about event dates and locations. We will also post the season event schedule on the following Florida FTC web page: Events (flfirst.org)

The primary purpose for this email is to provide you more information about the upcoming Florida (online) kick-off event and help you prepare for the coming FIRST Tech Challenge season.  It is never too late to start your engineering notebook and adding team outreach events to build your first steps toward winning the Inspire Award at your League Championship and the Florida Championship.  A great place to start earning your Gracious Professionalism points is to attend a kick-off event and help mentor our Florida rookie team.

The following are the topics covered in this Florida FTC newsletter:

1. Florida FTC Remote Kick-off – September 10, 2022 at 12:00 noon EDT
2. Season Schedule
3. Team Grant Information
4. Game Manual Part 1 Available
5. Team Registration Cost Increase

Newsletter Details:

1. Florida FTC Remote Kick-off – September 10, 2020 at 12:00 noon EDT – The Bob & Sid show as well as AJ Foster’s Tech Think Time sessions are back by popular demand.  The Florida FTC 2022-23 season will officially be started with a kick-off event hosted on the FIRST in Florida YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/FIRSTinFlorida). The Florida FTC Kick-off Event will start at 12:00noon EDT.  During the kick-off event, we will provide an update on the season plans as well as perform a walk-through of the POWERPLAY^SM game elements and rules. A more detailed agenda will be available a week before the kick-off event.

1. Season Schedule: The 2002-23 Florida FTC season will end with the Florida Championship on March 3-4, 2023 and will again be hosted at the Advent Fieldhouse in Winter Haven, FL. The following is the overall event schedule for the 2022-23 season:
• September 10, 2022 – Season Kick-off and game reveal
• October, 2022 – Leagues hosting Scrimmages, Training, and Workshops
• October, 2022 to January, 2023 – League Meets
• February 5, 2023 – Deadline for all leagues to complete the League Tournament/Championship.  The League Tournament determines which teams qualify to attend the Florida Championship
• March 3-4, 2023 – Florida Championship at the Advent Fieldhouse in Winter Haven Florida
• April 19-22, 2023 – World Championship at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, TX
  
  
2. Team Grant Information – The DEKA Foundation rookie team grant is back again this season. Team financial grants are available from many of the FIRST sponsors. The best place to find out information about the available grants can be found on the following FIRST web page: grants web page.
   
   
3. Game Manual Part 1 Available – This is a reminder that FIRST has already released part 1 of the game manual and coaches/teams are encouraged to start reviewing in preparation for the season kick-off.  Part 1 of the game manual can be found on the following FIRST web page: https://www.firstinspires.org/resource-library/ftc/game-and-season-info. Check out the FIRST blog post  for a summary of rules changes for the upcoming 2022-2023 season.   
   
   Part 2 will be released on September 10, 2022 and will contain all of the POWERPLAY^SM game specific rules and penalties.  Attending the Florida kick-off event described above is a great chance for your team to start learning about this season’s game.
   
   
4. Team Registration Cost Increase -- FIRST has implemented a team registration increase. The team registration fee has increased by $20 and is now $295.  The following the link to the announcement: This announcement and FAQ