Welcome to Pennsylvania FIRST Tech Challenge
![]() It’s way more than building robots Following a sports model, FIRST Tech Challenge teams design, build, program, and operate robots of their own design to play a floor game in an alliance format. Teams of middle and high school-aged students are challenged to design, build, and program a robot to play a floor game against other teams’ creations. Guided by adult Coaches and Mentors, students develop STEM skills and practice engineering principles, while realizing the value of hard work, innovation, and sharing ideas. Participants have access to tens of millions of dollars in college scholarships. |
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Pennsylvania FIRST Tech Challenge Announcements
- Remote Scrimmages:
- Pennsylvania FTC Scrimmage #1 is complete and the results have been published to https://ftc-events.firstinspires.org/2020/USPALAS1. Congratulations to Team 14130 To Be Determined (1st Place), Team 16468 Green Lemons (2nd Place), Team 10353 Metal Works (3rd Place) and all teams who competed in this inaugural Pennsylvania FTC remote event.
- Pennsylvania FTC Scrimmage #2 is complete and the results have been published to https://ftc-events.firstinspires.org/2020/USPALAS2. Congratulations to Team 16468 Green Lemons (1st Place), Team 16330 Javengers (2nd Place), Team 7314 Sab-BOT-age (3rd Place) and all teams who competed in this Pennsylvania FTC remote event.
- Pennsylvania FTC Scrimmage #3 is complete and the results have been published to https://ftc-events.firstinspires.org/2020/USPALAS3. Congratulations to Team 16468 Green Lemons (1st Place), Team 6964 Igutech (2nd Place), Team 16011 Fayette County 4H (3rd Place) and all teams who competed in this Pennsylvania FTC remote event.
- Team Robot Videos: Thank you to the teams who have been sharing videos of their Scrimmage matches! Visit 2020-2021 Team Robot Videos to see their videos and to submit your own. Remember that this can be a video highlighting a cool feature of your robot or a video of one of your complete match plays. We look forward to seeing your robots in action.
- 2020-2021 Season Overview: The Season Overview page has been updated. Based on current number of teams, there are now 4 leagues. The counties in each league were adjusted slightly to balance the number of teams in each league. In late January we will review the number of teams in each League again and may make more slight adjustments. To see which League your team is in, see the 2020-2021 Teams page.
- 2020-2021 Season Event Calendar: The 2020-2021 Season Event Calendar has been updated with our official Remote Scrimmages and Remote League Events. The competition window has been expanded to Wednesday-Sunday for Scrimmages and League Meets and Wednesday-Saturday for the League Tournament. Opening Ceremonies for these events will be Tuesday evening prior to the start of the competition window.
- Remote Scrimmages: There are now 5 Remote Scrimmages - roughly every other week starting in December through early February. Registration for these scrimmages through our website is not necessary! All Pennsylvania FTC Teams who have paid their 2020-2021 season FIRST team registration fee AND who have two YPP screened coaches have been automatically registered for all 5 scrimmages. Your team is welcome to compete in any or all of the scrimmages. Opening Ceremonies for these events will be Tuesday evening prior to the start of the scrimmage and results will be posted the following Monday. Use the FIRST Tech Challenge Cloud-based Scoring System for practice matches and to play/score your 6 matches for each remote scrimmage. See the 2020-2021 Season Event Calendar for details.
- Remote League Events: The Pennsylvania FTC Remote League events consists of 5 League Meets and 1 League Tournament. The League Meets start in mid-February and are scheduled for 5 consecutive weeks. Teams may compete in any or all of their League Meets, but a team must compete in at least 2 League Meets to be eligible to compete in the League Tournament. Our League Tournaments will be held throughout April. Event Registration and a fully paid event registration fee is required prior to competing in League events. Opening Ceremonies for the League Meets will be Tuesday evening prior to the start of the Meet and results will be posted the following Monday. Opening Ceremonies for the League Tournaments will be Tuesday evening prior to the start of the Tournament and the Awards & Closing Ceremonies will be held on Sunday afternoon. Use the FIRST Tech Challenge Cloud-based Scoring System for practice matches and to play/score your 6 matches for the Remote League events. See the 2020-2021 Season Event Calendar for details.
- Remote League Registration: Event Registration for our Remote League Events is now open! There is a single Event Registration Fee for participation in the Remote League events. This includes competing in up to 5 Remote Meets, and for eligible teams (teams who compete in at least two Remote Meets), the Remote League Tournament.
- Team Robot Videos: Teams - share videos of your robot in action! This can be a video highlighting a cool feature of your robot or a video of one of your complete match plays. Visit 2020-2021 Team Robot Videos the list of videos and to submit your own videos. We look forward to seeing your robots in action!
- Teams Sharing Competition Field resources: Coaches - do you have a field and game elements that would like to share with other teams so they can practice/play their remote matches? There is a new channel #teams-sharing-fields in the Penn FTC Coaches and Mentors Slack Workspace for you let other coaches know your field is available. If your team would like to use one of these team fields, Direct Message (in Slack) the offering coach for details and to coordinate access to their location and use of their field.
- Slack Workspace for Coaches and Mentors: Again this season we are using Slack as a messaging platform for our Pennsylvania FTC coaches and mentors. If you are a coach or mentor and do not have access to the Penn FTC Coaches and Mentors Slack Workspace, please sign up here.