For the 2009 FIRST LEGO League Challenge, Smart Move, NorCal FLL tournaments will be organized in a three-tiered system.

The system will include three levels of tournaments; preliminary tournaments, secondary tournaments, and a single championship. We are currently planning for 12-15 preliminaries and 3 secondaries.

The preliminary tournaments are being planned for 12-24 teams and will be held in November.

The secondary tournaments are being planned for 36 teams and will be held in December.

The championship will host 48 teams and will be held in January.

Dates are currently being finalized for many of the events. Additional information on the dates and locations will be published as the information is available.

Why the Change?

As the FLL Program has grown in Northern California, it has become increasingly difficult for teams to earn the opportunity to participate in more than one level of competition. For the 2008 Climate Connections season, just over 20% of our teams earned this privilege.

With the growth that we are anticipating for the 2009 Smart Move season, this would have dropped to be closer to 18%.

Additionally, FIRST is now giving guidance to the FLL Affiliate Partners (for NorCal FLL, Playing At Learning is the Affiliate Partner) that we should be providing the opportunity for additional competition chances to approximately 30%or more of our teams.

The three-tiered system allows us to grow the middle level of tournaments to accomodate teams advancing, without requiring the Championship to become a HUGE event.

Additionally, the change will allow us to shrink the Championship to a size that will allow the teams a more relaxed day, more opportunities to perform their robots, and more time with the judges. All three of these changes will allow us to address feedback we received from many teams, volunteers, referees and judges.

Advancement Criteria

All tournaments will be using the same criteria for determing the teams that earn the opportunity to advance to the next level of tournaments. The advancement criteria is the same as the one that was used last year and weights all 4 core aspects of FIRST LEGO League equally.