We nicknamed our computer cart the "Mother Ship" and found it an effective way to launch a match.

In Ken Johnson’s FTC blog, he notes that the FMS format we used here for our State Championship will be used at the World event in Atlanta:

Some of you have heard the news about how we plan to run the FTC World Championship re: the Field management System (FMS). If you have not, the plan is to allow teams to run the FMS directly from their own laptops at the playing fields. We’ve tried this in Florida and it worked well giving teams more control over their robots and the pairing process, and speeding up cycle times at the field.

He assures readers that there are few if any problems with this format and concludes, “this format will make the World Championship run smoother. The biggest benefit is that teams can run the FMS, on their own, as many times as they’d like to test their robots.”

We can happily add our voice to that assurance. Using team computers at the Florida State Championship proved an easy, efficient and satisfying way to compete at the event, and kept the event on schedule and exciting to participate in as a result of the speed of the matches and the short wait time between matches.

You can read more about Florida pioneered FMS format at our “New Procedure” post from January 31.It really did work well and should make everyone’s experience at the World Championship a lot more fun and engaging!