The Ontario District has a major competition event change announcement:

Ontario has moved from a two-day event structure to an 18 team single-day model of events. There are four main reasons for this change; to minimize hurdles for teams to secure in-person event registrations, travel permissions, and the 2022 limited availability of host venues along with pandemic constraints. Paramount to FIRST Robotics Canada is to ensure that we provide safe and spacious competition environments. During the event selection process, teams can choose either the first day of the competition or the second day of the competition, or both of the same venue event competition days as allowed during the two stages of the event selection process. 

Each day is a separate competition/event with each day hosting qualifying and elimination rounds. If you choose two days on the same weekend at the same venue, you will have participated in your two district events. Or you can choose to compete on one day at one venue, and then participate in your second competition on either day of the subsequent venue during round two of the event selection process.

Note; one set of awards will be awarded across the two days of single-day competitions. 

Also, please note:

  • All attendees of any in-person indoor FIRST Canada event held in Ontario who are eligible and able to receive the COVID-19 vaccine must present proof of full vaccination, as per the Government of Ontario’s Proof of Vaccination policy, in order to attend an event. Please see the Provincial policy for full details.
  • Masks are mandatory at any in-person indoor FIRST Canada event held in Ontario
  • Full details are available here: https://firstroboticscanada.org/vaccinationstatement/
  • In addition, FIRST Canada is developing an extensive set of COVID-19 safety protocols. These protocols will evolve based on the current public health guidelines and situations at the time of the event. Some of these include:
    • Reduced Capacity: Indoor capacity limit will follow the Provincial requirements, at the time of the event, which is currently 50%
    • Attendance: Teams will be limited to a proportional amount of attendees based on the event capacity
    • Physical Distancing: Team pit areas will be approximately spaced at 2m apart and will be limited to 5 members in their pit at any given time. Teams will be also be required to maintain a specified distance between other teams in the stands
    • Contact Tracing: Teams will submit a list of all event attendees as part of their Team Roster, which will be used for contact tracing. All attendees will receive a non-transferable wristband at registration and must show this wristband to verify access to the event. 
    • Sanitization: A sanitization plan is in development for high touch and low touch shared surfaces. Sanitization using cleaning alcohol available for disinfecting high-touch surfaces will occur periodically during the day for high-touch shared surfaces, and at the end of the day for low-touch shared surfaces.
    • Detailed protocols will be released closer to the event dates.

Your FRC Director: 

John Hobbins