Team Info

Francis W. Parker School
330 W. Webster Ave, Chicago, IL 60614

Chicago is serviced by two main airports, O’Hare (ORD) & Midway (MDW) Airports. Both airports are a roughly 45 min drive from the venue. Additionally, both airports are serviced by Chicago’s “L” train system which takes teams directly downtown. Teams can then transfer to a second line to reach the venue. The venue is also serviced by a number of bus lines. 

Public Transportation stops near the venue:

• Via “L” train system:
  • Red, Brown, or Purple Lines to Fullerton (~15 min walk)
• Via bus:
  • 22/36 drop off in front of the school
  • 151/156, get off at Stockton/Webster (~3 min walk)
  • 73 armitage, get off at Clark/Armitage (~10 min walk)
• Via Amtrak/Metra Train:
  • Get off at Union Station or Ogilvie Transportation Center in downtown Chicago. Take L/bus to venue (151 is likely easiest)

Very limited free parking is available at the venue and teams are allowed a maximum of one team vehicle in the venue’s parking lot. There are a number of paid parking lots within a 5-10 minute walk from the venue, a plethora of paid street parking surrounding the venue and free street parking within the adjacent neighborhood. CRI Parking Map

The venue’s main entrance is located on Clark Street, halfway down the block between Webster Avenue & Belden Avenue. The main entrance will be the primary building entrance open throughout the tournament. Team and volunteer check-in & the competition fields are located just inside the main entrance. The Belden Ave entrance (just off the parking lot) will be open on Friday evening & Saturday morning for team load-in but will be locked during the day. 

Team load-in begins on Friday, July 18th at 5:00pm Central Time. Teams are not allowed to enter the venue prior to the 5pm load-in time and unfortunately, we cannot accommodate teams arriving early or dropping off items early. 

CRI will have 3-4 hotel blocks for teams that will be available by mid-February. An email will be sent out once hotel blocks have been finalized.

In addition to the above hotel blocks, we can recommend some of the following hotels:

Lincoln Park (Venue Neighborhood, ~5-10 min drive or bus ride to venue)

• Hotel Lincoln
• Hotel Versey Days Inn

Downtown Chicago (~15-30 min drive or bus ride to venue)

• Voco Chicago Downtown
• Holiday Inn Express Chicago
• Travelodge by Wyndham Downtown Chicago
• Congress Plaza Hotel 

O’Hare Airport/Rosemont Area (~50 min drive to venue)

Hilton Garden Inn Chicago O’Hare Airport

Hyatt Regency O’Hare Chicago

DoubleTree by Hilton Chicago O’Hare

Embassy Suites by Hilton Chicago O’Hare

Hampton Inn & Suites Rosemont Chicago O’Hare

Hyatt Rosemont

Food/drinks are not sold/provided directly on site and the venue does not have any vending machines. There are a number of nearby quick-service restaurants and convenience stores to pick up breakfast/lunch, snacks and drinks. See our Food Map.

** New This Year ** We will have 3-4 food trucks in the front driveway during lunch on Saturday and Sunday for teams to get lunch from. We will provide more information closer to the event on cuisine types that will be available.

Pits will be ~8ft wide x ~10ft deep and each team will be supplied a 6-or-8ft table and have power access. Additionally, each team will be given 3 chairs. Teams are encouraged to leave larger pit elements at home due to the limited pit area at the venue and pit designs that include a covered canopy/tent are not allowed. The height limit on pits is 10ft. If a team’s pit is interfering with neighboring pits, that team may be asked to take down certain backdrops/banners. Teams that are attending with a sister/secondary/affiliated team will have adjacent pit positions. 

Teams should bring appropriate safety glasses, a power strip, standard tools and replacement parts. Team members/coaches/mentors must wear closed toed & closed heeled shoes (crocs or sandals do not count). Teams are highly encouraged to bring refillable water bottles as the venue has numerous water bottle filling stations throughout the competition area. We also encourage teams to bring sweatshirts as the venue can be cold at times. Lastly, we highly recommend that teams bring a robot cart as the pits and competition fields are separated by a floor and a bit of walk, there is an elevator that teams can use to access the competition field/use to return to the pits.

CRI features its own set of Chicago Style awards inspired by a mix of the FTC & FRC in-season awards and our own experiences in FIRST. The awards highlight many of the same attributes FTC events have traditionally recognized along with a few new aspects of the FIRST experience that we’re excited to celebrate. Each award is named after a person, place or symbol special to Chicago to recognize the great city that we call home! Our custom awards can be found in Section 6 of the CRI Competition Manual!

Details:

• Judging will be conducted in accordance with the Competition Manual with the adjustments
• Teams must submit a portfolio in order to be eligible for awards. Modifying portfolios is not required, but some teams chose to do so.
• Judges will only select a winner and runner-up for each award. In an effort to “spread the wealth” each team can only win one award
• 2025 Award details are in section 6 of the Competition Manual