UPDATE - Saturday, September 21, 2024

Dear TechX Competition Families!

Coach Jared and I deeply commend the enthusiastic support demonstrated by each family! Ever since the Parent Meeting this past Tuesday (September 17th), we have actively spoken to parents and VEX competition officials to work through obstacles only with the Signature Event. Given the short timeframe to have these discussions, this was the earliest we could share these details:

Parent Team Leads
Thank you for all of you who volunteered to be Parent Team Leads! Please give them a round of applause!

  • Team 277T - Jean Kim (mother of Jillian with 277T and Grayson with 277X)

  • Team 277X - Kavita Deepak (mother of Vihaan)

  • Team 277R - Michael Chuang (father of Lucas)

Local State Qualifiers are a GO!
Every family has committed to going to the local State Qualifiers - so we are a lock to go! They are:

One item to note is that for Team 277R, we will need to coordinate with each Tournament’s Coordinator (officially known as an “Event Partner” or “EP”), and other coaches competing in those respective State Qualifiers, to ensure that we have a 3rd Member (a “Loader”) from another team - which is readily allowed in the Official Game Manual. Read the next section to understand further details about this issue.

Signature Event
For the Signature Event, 2 Members of each team (277T, 277X, 277R) have confirmed their availability to attend. While we definitely understand and respect the families who cannot attend, we have to find a solution to add a 3rd member for each team for the Signature Event. This matter of needing a total of 3 members per team turns out to be a complicated issue, so I have created a more technical explanation HERE.

At Tuesday’s Parent Meeting, I asked that the Parent Team Leads can figure out with their respective teams IF they want to commit to the Signature Event in Oklahoma. Before you decide to make this big commitment, I would like to mention a number of details to keep in mind:

  1. “BORROW” A 3RD MEMBER? - I reached out to the Coordinator of the Signature Event, Kymberly Tinsley, and mentioned to her that we have a dilemma where each TechX team will only bring 2 members. Given the Official Game Rules, I requested for her to reach out to Coaches of the other teams participating at the Signature Event to see if they can let us “borrow” an additional 3rd Team Member to compete with us for the whole 3-Day Signature Event, which is allowed (see technical explanation above). This means that before a family purchases their travel accommodations (flight, hotel, rental car), that they should wait until the Sig Event Coordinator confirms IF we will have that 3rd Team Member. If a 3rd Member is NOT found, then that particular team cannot compete. Unfortunately, I don’t know how long this will take, and this might be too long to wait for your team to book travel accommodations.

  2. CAN WE FORM 2 TEAMS? - Unfortunately, after speaking to the Regional Support Manager, Bill Cahill, who guides the coaches in California and surrounding states, he confirmed with me that we cannot trade players within our own 3 teams to form 2 teams just for a single event since the 2 members are considered the main drivers who cannot be traded between teams.

  3. HOW MANY WORLD QUALIFYING SPOTS? - I also asked Kimberly Tinsley to confirm how many World Qualifying Spots would be given to the Elementary School (ES) Division and Middle School (MS) Division. She said that she didn’t know, but that it would be at least 1 spot per ES and MS divisions. While there could be multiple spots, 1 World Spot for 50 ES teams, and 1 World Spot for 50 MS teams might not be worth the trip unless you are ok with your team gaining the experience. This is another case where we don’t know how long it takes to find out, this also might not be worth the wait to find out how many World Qualifying Spots are at the Signature Event.

  4. FINDING A DIFFERENT SIGNATURE EVENT - Recall that we said that we could cover the cost of 1 Signature Event (along with covering 6 State Qualifiers and the State Championship)? We could find a different Signature Event as long as all teams agree to canceling this Oklahoma one and looking for a different one. At the moment, I see 9 additional Signature Events where some only last for 2 Days (the Oklahoma Sig Event is 3 Days). Keep in mind that we currently have 3 State Qualifiers and 1 Signature Event - we could cover 3 more local State Qualifiers which would provide plenty of opportunities to make it to the State Championship.

  5. AIRPORT IS OVER 1 HOUR DRIVE TO VENUE - Another consideration that I didn’t consider until recently is the fact that it will take a more than 1 hour to drive from the nearest airport (Tulsa International Airport) to the venue Tahlequah Event Center (591 Pendelton, Tahlequah, Oklahoma 74464).

  6. TRAVELING WITH EQUIPMENT - Having traveled to VEX Worlds, it is necessary to distribute equipment to Coach Jared and I and some families to bring with us on the Airplane as Check-In Baggage. While this is not a big deal, this is another consideration to take into account if your family ends up assisting us with transporting equipment.

Coach Jared and I wanted to be transparent with this process, and provide all families as much information as possible. Parent Team Leads - please talk through these details with your partnering families, and if possible please email me by the end of Monday, September 23rd with how your team wants to proceed. If you need the Signature Event links, please review them below:

Coach Jared will create a WhatsApp
As a number of parents have requested, Coach Jared will create a WhatsApp group for better communication soon!

We will look to improve our process
We want to keep growing as a company, and thank you for your feedback about improving our processes! Please know that we will do our best to engage with your feedback, and ask for your patience in executing improvements as some may take longer than others, and some will be successful and others not.

Thank you for all your support!

Mr. Nguyễn