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FRC REBUILT Blog: Volume 5

by | Sep 15, 2025 | FRC, Newsletter

Make sure you are ready to preference next week! 

    Be Event Ready Before Preferencing Opens 

    At the beginning of every season, coaches need to log into their FIRST dashboard to update consent forms and acknowledgements. Make sure you do this early so you don’t get held up when the FIRST Preferencing Window opens later this month. 

    To be event ready, both Lead Mentor 1 and 2 must: 

    • Sign consent and acknowledgement forms on their dashboard 
    • Be current with their Youth Protection Screening (YPP) 

    You will not be able to preference if both Lead 1 and 2 are not current with these requirements. Don’t wait until the last minute—when everyone submits screenings at once, the process takes longer! 

    📖 For full details, check out the FRC Event Preference Guide. 

    Don’t miss your chance—make sure your team is event ready before September 26 so you can take advantage of the first preferencing window! 

      FRC Coaches Chat

       

      FRC Coaches Chat 

      📅 Tuesday, September 30 @ 7:00 pm 

      At least one adult per team should attend. Topics include: 

      • How to preference for events (and when/how you’ll know your placement) 
      • Important season dates and deadlines 

      To attend this meeting click here —please forward to any adult who should attend. 

      Register with FIRST Washington 

      Please register with FIRST Washington by September 26. This ensures: 

      • We know your team plans to participate this season (otherwise we may not have confirmation until after preferencing closes). 
      • We have the correct contact information for invoicing. 
      • You gain access to FIRST Washington Grants (most funding goes to Washington teams, but some Oregon teams have received funding in past years as well). 

       FIRST Washington Registration Form 

      Important Dates

      FTC DECODE Blog: Volume 5

      by | Sep 15, 2025 | FTC, Newsletter

      Get registered with FIRST and FIRST Washington ASAP!

      Register Now! 

      You must be registered with FIRST and FIRST Washington to be placed in your home league. 

      As of Monday morning, we have: 

      • 112 teams registered with FIRST 
      • 81 teams registered with FIRST Washington 

      Last season, 181 teams participated. That means less than half of you are currently fully registered. 

      Register with FIRST Washington here:
       FTC Washington Registration Form 

      Register with FIRST (national): 
       From your firstinspires.org dashboard. Note: you will need to pay your registration fee when registering with FIRST. 

      You do not need to pay at the time of registration with FIRST Washington—we will invoice teams the first week of October. 

      Bonus: The FIRST Washington registration form also gives you access to grants that reduce your registration cost. 

      Help us help you—register today so we can get league assignments out on time! 

       

      Check Your Registration Status 

      Not sure if you are registered? Check here:
       FTC Team Status 

      Please note: this report is updated manually every morning and may take up to 24 hours to reflect new registrations.

      FTC Event Schedule 

      You can find League Events, League Tournaments (formerly Interleagues), and Super Qualifiers (formerly Semi-Finals) here: 
       FTC Competition Info 

      Important notes on leagues: 

      • Home League assignments will be posted no later than Wednesday, October 1. 
      • The entire event track (league, tournament, and super qualifier) will be posted at that time. 
      • Teams from the same school will be in the same home league. 
      • The League Preferencing Window will open Oct 1–Oct 8. 
      • Final league assignments will be posted by October 10. 
      • If you have multiple teams, we cannot guarantee all will remain together if you preference into a different league. 

      FTC Coaches Chat 

      📅 Thursday, September 18 @ 7:00 pm 

      At least one adult from your team should attend. Topics include: 

      • Key deadlines 
      • Dates for leagues, tournaments, semi-finals, and state 
      • How league registration works 
      • How to move to a different league 

      To log into the meeting click here  Feel free to forward this link to any adult on your team that you would like to attend. 

       

      Important Dates & Deadlines

      FRC REBUILT Blog: Volume 4

      by | Sep 2, 2025 | FRC, Newsletter

      Event schedule is posted on firstinspires.org 

        Make sure you are event ready so you can preference later this month 

        At the beginning of every season, coaches need to log onto their dashboard to update their consent and other acknowledgements.  Make sure you do that early so you don’t get held up when the FIRST Preferencing window opens later this month. 

         

         

          Events are posted on firstinspires.org 

          To make it easier, here is the event schedule for 2026: 

          Week 1 

            

            

          3/5/2026 

          3/7/2026 

          Oregon State Fairgrounds 

          3/6/2026 

          3/8/2026 

          Bonney Lake 

          Week 2 

            

            

          3/13/2026 

          3/15/2026 

          Wilsonville 

          3/13/2026 

          3/15/2026 

          Glacier Peak 

          Week 3 

            

            

          3/19/2026 

          3/21/2026 

          SunDome 

          3/20/2026 

          3/22/2026 

          Sammamish 

          Week 4 

            

            

          3/26/2026 

          3/28/2026 

          Clackamas Academy 

          3/27/2026 

          3/29/2026 

          Auburn 

          Week 6 

            

            

          4/8/2026 

          4/11/2026 

          DCMP, Cheney, WA 

          FRC Coaches Chat 

          Our first FRC coaches chat of the season is schedule for Tuesday, Sept 30 at 7:00 pm.  Please make sure to have one adult attend this meeting.  Here is what we will be discussing (at a high level) on this meeting: 

          • How to preference for events (and when/how you know what event you were placed in to) 
          • Important dates and deadlines for the season 

          To attend this meeting click here 

          BunnyBot rules have been posted!

           

          For those teams planning to participate in BunnyBots, you can find the rules here:  https://www.frc3218.org/bunnybots  If you have any questions, reach out to Jason Vander Hoek jason_vander_hoek@sumnersd.org

          Important Dates

          FTC DECODE Blog: Volume 4

          by | Sep 2, 2025 | FTC, Newsletter

          FTC Kickoff is this weekend! 

          For those of you who have registered for a kickoff, have a great time!  Attending a kickoff in person is so important and helpful to teams (in my opinion).  It is a great start to the season and is something I think all teams should do if they get the chance. 

          For those of you who are watching remotely, you can find the link to the kickoff video here:  https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/ftc  The link should be live at 9 am on Saturday, Sept 6th! 

           

          FTC Coaches Chat

          Our first FTC coaches chat of the season will be on Thursday, September 18 at 7:00 pm.  Please make sure you have one adult attend this meeting.  Here is a high level overview of what some of the things we will be covering on this first meeting of the season:

          • Important deadlines
          • Dates for Leagues, League Tournaments, Semi Finals and State (high level)
          • Home League Registration – what that means
          • How to move to a different league

          To log into the meeting click here  Feel free to forward this link to any adult on your team that you would like to attend.

          You will need to be registered with FIRST and FIRSTWA to be placed in a home league 

          Currently we have 78 teams registered FIRST and 53 registered with FIRST Washington. 

          FIRST Washington registration is open.  Please take a moment to register if your team plans to participate this year.   

          This form also gives you access to the FIRST Washington Registration grants that are used to lower your registration. 

          Registration form link:  https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/aa05160be9cb49ec94f3b61b272443a1   

          Register your team with firstinspires.  You can do this from your dashboard on firstinspires.org.   

           

          Important Dates & Deadlines

          FRC REBUILT Blog: Volume 3

          by | Aug 26, 2025 | FRC, Newsletter

          Block Party has been cancelled

            If you are planning to attend an off season event, register now before more events are cancelled due to low attendance! 

             

            Off-Season Event Registration  

            Looking for a fun way to have new members experience an event, try out a new mechanism, or network with other teams? Register to attend an off-season event this fall! 

            Off-season events are hosted and run by individual FRC teams, not FIRST Washington. This means each event’s participation requirement(s), fees, and timelines may vary. All events will utilize the Reefscape game. 

            Block Party hosted by Team 2910 – Sept 6 & 7 – event cancelled due to low registration numbers 

             

            Oregon Girls’ Generation / FIRST Chance hosted by Team 1425 – Oct 4 & 5 

            Oregon Girls’ Gen is a girl-focused event, run as a one-day competition. Oregon FIRST Chance is a one-day event for all students and aimed at providing an opportunity for students new to FRC to attend a pre-season event.

            Location: Wilsonville High School in Wilsonville, OR

            Registration information coming soon!

            For questions, contact Tom Sommerville Jr at tom.sommerville@gmail.com

             

            Uplift Challenge hosted by Teams 4125 and 8532 – Oct 10 & 11 

            Save the date for the Uplift Challenge! This off-season event is open to teams in schools of 500 students and below. Teams in small schools have unique challenges and strengths. This is a chance for us to come together, share ideas, learn about new resources- and of course, have an-off season competition.

            Location: Umatilla, OR

            Fee: $100

            Register for Uplift Challenge

            For questions, contact Heidi Sipe at sipeh@umatillasd.org

             

            2025 Bordie Blast: Bordie at Sea hosted by Team 2412 – Oct 11 & 12 

            Load-in Friday Oct 10th

            Location: Sammamish High School in Bellevue, WA

            Fee: $300 (additional $100 for a second robot if space permits)

            Register for Bordie at Sea

            Volunteer sign-up form

            Event Website

            For questions, contact Kim Herzog at HerzogK@bsd405.org

             

            Washington Girls’ Generation hosted by Team 2046 – Oct 18 & 19

            The goal for Girls’ Generation is to provide an inclusive experience for underrepresented communities in STEM. In that spirit, we welcome all to participate.

            Optional load-in Friday Oct 17th

            Location: Tahoma Senior High School in Maple Valley, WA

            Fee: $300

            Register for WA Girls’ Gen

            Volunteer sign-up form

            Event Website

            For questions, contact Darren Collins at dcollins@tahomasd.us

             

            StormSurge hosted by Teams 2811 and 9567 – Oct 25

            Location: Skyview High School in Vancouver, WA

            Fee: $250 (one robot), $350 (two robots)

            Register for StormSurge

            For questions, contact Luke Glassett at lukeglassett@gmail.com

             

            Annual Bunnybots OR and WA 

            2nd Annual Bunnybots WA- hosted by team 3218

            • Location: Bonney Lake HS
            • Contest date: Dec 20th, 7:30 am – 5:00 pm
            • 1-day contest
            • load in 7:30-9:30
            • 1st matches at 10 am
            • email jason_vander_hoek@sumnersd.org 
            This will be a new robot, built with recycled parts.
            contest rules based on typical FRC rules
            Rules released Sept 1. https://www.frc3218.org/bunnybots

            Annual Bunnybots OR

            • Contest date: Dec 13th
            Both contests will cost $150 per bot. and have room for about 20 bots.
            Here is footage from last year’s game

             

              PNW FRC Registration is open! 

              PNW FRC registration is open.  For those of you who have already registered, THANK YOU!!  For those who haven’t, please take a moment to register if your team plans to participate this year.  For FRC teams, this is the best way for us to know you plan to participate prior to when team preferencing ends the beginning of October. 

              This form also gives you access to the FIRST Washington Registration grants that are used to lower your registration. 

              Just a reminder that the District Championship fees have been decoupled from the season registration fees so the season registration fee is now $11,800.  Teams that qualify for District Championship will be charged an additional $4000.  We hope to have some funding available to defray the District Championship registration grants. 

              Registration form link:  https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/3913797ab2d24190ae51da675f49b3b5  

              Important Dates

              FTC DECODE Blog: Volume 3

              by | Aug 26, 2025 | FTC, Newsletter

              Register now if you plan to attend a kickoff! 

              FTC Kickoff is 12 days away! 

              Are hosts are working hard to give you a great experience, how can you help by registering for a kickoff so our hosts know you are coming!   

              Auburn High School- Due to low attendance (only 3 teams registered), this event may be cancelled.  We will make the decision Friday morning based on registrations through Thursday.

              711 E Main St. Auburn, WA 98002 

              • 8:30 am: Doors open 
              • 9:00 am: Game reveal with Q&A and workshops to follow 
              • 12:30 pm: Event ends 

                

              BrickCon 2025!

              Meydenbauer Center 11100 NE 6th St. Bellevue, WA 98004 

              • 8:30 am: Doors open 
              • 9:00 am: Game reveal with Q&A and workshops to follow 
              • 12:00 pm: Event ends 

                

              Kennewick High School

              560 W Sixth Ave, Kennewick, WA 99336 *new location* 

              • 8:30 am: Doors open 
              • 8:30-9:00 am: Ice Breaker/Games to get to know the teams 
              • 9:00 am: Game reveal with Q&A and brainstorming sessions 

                

              Saint Martin’s University

              5000 Abbey Way SE Lacey, WA 98503 *new location* 

              • 8:30 am: Doors open 
              • 9:00 am: Game reveal with Q&A and brainstorming sessions to follow 
              • 12:00 pm: Event ends 

                

              Ridgeline High School

              20150 E. Country Vista Dr. Liberty Lake, WA 98019 

              • 8:30 am: Doors open 
              • 9:00 am: Game reveal 
              • 10:00 am: Field reveal, rules Q&A 
              • 10:30 am: Workshops 
              • 12:00 pm: Event ends 

               

              Click here to register for a kickoff.  We are looking forward to another great season!  

              Register your team with FIRST and FIRST Washington now! 

              FIRST Washington registration is open.  Please take a moment to register if your team plans to participate this year.   

              This form also gives you access to the FIRST Washington Registration grants that are used to lower your registration. 

              Registration form link:  https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/aa05160be9cb49ec94f3b61b272443a1   

              Register your team with firstinspires.  You can do this from your dashboard on firstinspires.org.   

              Important Dates & Deadlines