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The FundamentalsSince each of these four areas (research project, robot runs,teamwork, and technical skills) are interrelated and necessaryto win a FIRST LEGO League Regional, State, or Worldchampionship, a team must become proficient in all of them.There are many strategies for teams that wish to accomplishthis goal. We will examine several of these in the articles tocome.However, a good strategy can only take you so far. Hard work,experience, liking your teammates, dedication, kids doing thework, and solid mentoring and coaching are fundamentalelements of a FIRST LEGO League that support a team’sstrategy. Absence of any of these fundamental elements willsabotage the team’s performance at competition. Under thestress of the competition and interviews, very few teams canfake these fundamental elements. Future articles will describehow you can build the pillars that support your team’scompetitive performance.Some teams will do FIRST LEGO League for fun and otherswill do it to win. Hard work is therefore relative depending onhow you define winning. Young men and women need outletsand FIRST LEGO League should be fun. The team membersshould define their goals at the beginning of the season andwork toward achieving these goals. These goals should berealistic and attainable.The intensity of this work often depends on your localcompetition. Some states have competitions starting just afterThanksgiving while others will start in late January. If youwish to put in 100 hours of work into the competition, spacingit over five months is much easier than three. The intensityof competing in a state where competitions arrive before youknow it is so much greater. The thing to keep in mind is thatyour competitors are hit with the same deadlines.A FIRST LEGO League team is a team. It relies on all of itsmembers to pull their weight. Dedication is perhaps the singlemost important element in being part of a winning team.When the team sets their goals, you should speak up if yourschedule will not allow you to participate as frequently as theteam needs you. The needs are obvious different if you are theteam captain then if you are part of the “run” team. However,your teammates are relying on you to be there and your abilityor inability to meet that need will impact the team.Experience will influence the capabilities of both players andcoaches. Winning a regional or state championship as a firstyear team, while certainly possible, is uncommon. (First yearteams have been known to win first or second place in asingle area such as research quality, teamwork, technical,2001Arctic ImpactTeams: 1902In the remote Arctic, robots face extremeweather such as ice storms, 120 mile perhour winds, and very cold temperatures.Can your robot retrieve medicine barrelsand rescue stranded scientists from polarbears?2002City SightsTeams: 3001Urban planning was the themefocusing on basic services such as cleanwater, safety, education, and masstransportation. Can your robot completetasks such as clearing rocks off a soccerfield, harvesting and delivering food,and collecting toxic barrels?Much of the work done at FLL is teamwork. Here, the Microbots are checking theprogramming to their robot.2003Mission MarsTeams: 4331LEGO created an entire set of productsaround this theme in 2007. The challengewas inspired by a Mars Rover missionthat year. Your robot’s missions includeremoving rocks from a solar panel andcollecting soil and rock samples. Howquickly can your robot move inthe Martian desert landscape?69