The Hardest Challenge

This year's challenge could actually be the hardest that any FLL team has ever faced. Climate Connections is deceptively hard and perhaps even harder than the challenges of previous years. In North Carolina, our state championship is December 6th so teams have effectively three months to solve the challenge and create a research project. Many other states conduct regional championships in early January with a state championship at the end of January. The result is a more difficult state championship with more teams and less time. This can be viewed in one of two ways. The first is the pessimistic view which says that it isn't enough time and the chances of winning are smaller. The other is optimistic view which says if it is hard for us, it also hard for the other teams. Let’s go win!

This year, the North Carolina State Championship is limited to 80 teams. We think that we made the cut for the championship but we won't know for sure for a couple more days. 80 teams is probably the most that can fit in a single day of competition. There is a rookie competition for the first year teams in early January. It seems like it is right around the corner!

We expect tough competition from both teams that we know and the teams that perhaps are new to FLL. We wish all of the teams competing in this tournament the best of luck! First Lego league is not easy and very few of the 80 NC teams will go home with a trophy.

We thank James T. and Kyle B. for helping us to gather 6 strangers who work well together, who have worked hard this year, and who will be competitive. In talking to other teams, this is the real hard challenge. Go Microbots!