Illinois State Championship Tournaments

FIRST Lego League - Cargo Connect - Tesla State Championship Award Ceremony

Einstein State Championship Award Video

Illinois State Championships:

Saturday January 15, 2022:  Einstein at Elgin Community College;  

Saturday January 29, 2022: Tesla at University of Illinois at Champaign; 

Volunteer opportunities are available for the FIRST® LEGO® League Illinois Championship Tournaments:

If your team did not make it to the State Championships or you are thinking about getting involved with robotics this year, you can get a head start on next season by signing up to volunteer at our State Championships. Maybe your team is going to the State Championship, but you have a couple parents who would like to help out for a few hours during the event. That is great! Volunteers often see some of their most insightful moments while volunteering at the State Championship. Come join us Friday (set up only) or Saturday, January 15th.

How do I volunteer?

Log in to www.firstinspires.org

If you do not have an account, you will need to register yourself with FIRST.

Once registered and logged in, choose the Volunteer Registration tab > then Event Volunteering. Set your search parameters for FIRST LEGO League Challenge program and Illinois state.

Find the State Championship you would like to volunteer at and select the roles you would like to volunteer for.

More information can be found here:

Northern Illinois Einstein State Championship Volunteer Flyer

General Questions:   fllchallenge@firstillinoisrobotics.org

General Information:

Per the guidance of the national FIRST organization approximately 25% of all teams participating in an FLL Qualifying Tournament will receive an invitation to a state level tournament.  FIRST Illinois Robotics will assign invited teams to a state tournament which best fits the team’s geographical location, but often teams will be asked to attend a more distant tournament due to the total team distribution across the state.

We have named the tournaments to honor 3 famous scientists and inventors:

Albert Einstein (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist. Einstein developed the theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics. He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics. Einstein is best known by the general public for his mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2 (which has been dubbed "the world's most famous equation").

Grace Hopper, (December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992) was an American computer scientist and United States Navy rear admiral. One of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, she was a pioneer of computer programming who invented one of the first compiler related tools.

Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist, and futurist who is best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.

Weather contingency plans: 

The Tesla Championship Tournament at the University of Illinois in Champaign will be held unless University of Illinois closes the facility. The Einstein Championship Tournaments at Elgin Community College will be held unless the college closes the facility.  

In the unlikely event that FIRST Illinois Robotics must cancel a tournament, teams will be notified by email to the Announcement List and a notice will be posted on this page of the website no later than 7AM on Saturday morning on the day of the tournament. FIRST Illinois Robotics will not be able to re-schedule the event.  If the event is cancelled, a team will be selected to attend any post season events by a random pull from teams that won the Champion’s Award from each Qualifying Tournament and were also scheduled to attend the State Championship Tournaments.   

Coaches and parents must use their best judgment about whether to travel in inclement weather.  If a team is not able to attend, please notify FIRST Illinois Robotics by sending an email to  fllchallenge@firstillinoisrobotics.org 

Global Innovation Award (GIA)

Each Illinois Championship tournament will nominate 1 team to be considered for the GIA.

•   Teams must advance to one of the championship tournaments to be eligible for the GIA nomination in Illinois.
•   GIA nomination does not affect a team’s eligibility for any other awards.
•   Project judges at the Championship tournament will designate the order of the top 3 nominations for the GIA. The first place team will be asked to determine if they wish accept the nomination and if not, the second place GIA team will be given the opportunity and so on with the third place team.