How many off season events?

[Ringo5tarr]

I see that the Off Season board is very popular right now, and I understand why. But my team pretty much shuts down completely after school ends, aside from a couple of demonstrations and camps for sponsorship reasons, so if this board is so popular, how many events do you guys go to? 1764 only does one, CowTown throwdown, which takes place around halloween.

[niklas674]

Team 701 generally goes to two offseason events. This year we are going to Chezy Champs and Capital City Classic. Last year we did Capital City Classic and Cal Games. Overall going to two events gives anyone going for drive team a chance to somewhat experience what it will be like to be on drive team during competition seasons.

[Jay O'Donnell]

I believe 1058 is going to 6 in total this year, which is about their average. 229 is hoping to go to one in the fall.

In the end it comes down to your teams competitive philosophy and all of the logistics. 229 is mentored mostly by college students so the team doesn't meet or travel between the months of May and September. 1058 meets every week throughout the year so they have a very different situation. Not to mention how much location matters: New England is filled to the brink with offseason events, while NY has a smaller amount.

[Hikel team 319]

As Jay mentioned, the number of off-season events available to attend is largely based on location. 319 is lucky enough to be in New England where there are several off-season events. We use the events as recruitment tools and to aid in operator training.
319 will attend 6 off-season events, which includes hosting The Battle Of the Bay, on November 12. The final New England Stronghold event.
There are still open spaces. Your team can register here

http://www.frc319.com/#!register/c1dfy

[Koko Ed]

My team goes to one (Rah Cha Cha Ruckus) and I, myself, will be going to 12 by the end of the off season.

[Bkeeneykid]

While I am also disappointed that there's only one in KC, there are other options. For one, you can try 5013's Drive Hard event (https://trobots.org), or you can try a close by off season. KC FIRST's calendar has a few listen on that for October (http://www.kcfirst.org/events).

Just like you, though, we just go to Cow Town every year, or at least that has been our plan so far. We plan on going to Drive Hard and potentially another off season, but that's yet to be determined.

[MikLast]

Until this year, we have done no offseason events, basically shutting down until september. This year we have camps that are going on starting next week, and there is still talk of going to an offseason event this year.

[BrendanB]

I believe 1058 is going to 6 in total this year, which is about their average. 229 is hoping to go to one in the fall.

In the end it comes down to your teams competitive philosophy and all of the logistics. 229 is mentored mostly by college students so the team doesn't meet or travel between the months of May and September. 1058 meets every week throughout the year so they have a very different situation. Not to mention how much location matters: New England is filled to the brink with offseason events, while NY has a smaller amount.

August & December are the only months up here we don't have competitions outside of the official season. Even then with 166 pulling double duty they host the official Week Zero Scrimmage in February so robot season really doesn't end there is always one more competition around the corner.

By the end of the year we will be pushing 150 matches but that's normal up here especially with teams like 125 and 195.

[RoboChair]

This year we will be going to Capitol City Classic, Chezy Champs, and Mad Town Throwdown. We have done this the last 2 years as well, bringing us to 7 events total each year, 3 offseason, 3 regionals, and Champs. It keeps us pretty busy.

[ASD20]

My team has only attended the Beantown Blitz the past few years, though I'm pretty sure we've been registered for like 3.

(P.S. You might want to add a poll to this thread)

[Allison K]

Our goal is to do enough offseasons that every student spends at least one full event on field crew (driver, operator, coach, human player) and one full event on pit crew. The past couple years that's worked out to about three events, at least one of which we run multiple robots.

[Cothron Theiss]

(P.S. You might want to add a poll to this thread)

+1

[MARS_James]

Team 179 is going to be doing 4 offseasons this year. IRI, Panther Prowl, Roboticon, and Mission Mayhem.

[346CADmen]

346 is planning for 2 this year (IROC & Rumble in the Roads)
While we had an invite to IRI it just wasn't to be this year.

Last year was 3 as we traveled to NY for the Rah-Cha-Cha Ruckus, a terrific event.

Off season is a good way to go outside the district.

[Siri]

1640 varies by how much training needs to be done. The height of crazy was in in our post-Ultimate Ascent "We've gotta get back to Einstein!" delirium, where we did 7 off-seasons including IRI. We were already in the district system, which meant that the 2013 season included 11 events (22 days) in the 33 weeks between 2 March and 19 October. Meaning that, to achieve Einstein 2013 and train up for Einstein 2014, the team did the equivalent of a Saturday event every week and a half between the beginning of March and mid-October. This is not counting team volunteers; I did something like 13 FRC and 16 FIRST events that year, including the 2 FLL events the team hosted.

On one level it was fantastic to get that much practice, with students comparing it to standard athletics where games and scrimmages happen all the time in-season. On the other hand...phew.

[Brian Maher]

Offseason driver practice really pays off during official competition. In addition, both my teams had their best robots ever this season and want to get more play time in. They both have a decently busy offseason planned:
1257:

MidKnight Mayhem
IRI
Ramp Riot (hopefully)
Brunswick Eruption

2791:

Battlecry@WPI
Tech Valley Robot Rumble
Brunswick Eruption

I just wish there were more offseasons near 2791. I'm not a huge fan of only having one that is less than a two hour drive away.
229 is hoping to go to one in the fall.
Is it by chance Robot Rumble?

[swootton]

We have traditionally only done 2 off season and 1 pre season until Connecticut started doing a state championship, then we started doing 4. This year is different. We have done 3 already and have 3 more that we are planning on attending. 4 of these events are with teams we don't normally play with unless we see them at district champs or worlds. We have made so many new friends and wonder why we didn't do this sooner.

[jajabinx124]

2052 attended 3 events last offseason:
Gitchi Gummi
Minnesota Robotics Invitational
Minnie Mini Regional

I know for a fact 2052 attended 1 event this offseason:
IRI

I'm assuming they'll attend MRI and Minnie Mini again this year making it 3 again. (I'm assuming since I'm not on the team anymore- just an alumni)

[Jay O'Donnell]

Is it by chance Robot Rumble?

That is one of the few we've discussed.

[mwmac]

My team goes to one (Rah Cha Cha Ruckus) and I, myself, will be going to 12 by the end of the off season.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Koko Ed again.

Tators like to do one off-season event each year. We are looking forward to playing with our California friends at Capital City Classic in October...

[Sperkowsky]

We are doing 2 this year one in the fall and one in the spring. I am doing 5 or 6.

Offseason events are fun ways to train new students and connect with the community for a fraction of the price of regionals. It's also a great place to try out new volunteer roles.

[GeeTwo]

This is our first year doing an off season event (Red Stick Rumble). In previous years, we did intramural events with locally generated games, but we did not get enough participation to make these viable. We had a nice corps of last year's freshmen and sophomores come in to clean out the new/smaller build space and get the robot ready for RSR, as well as support a variety of demos for our sponsors, community events, and our "feeder" teams.

[EricH]

One, typically--SCRRF Fall Classic. Format of that one recently has been as back-to-back one-day events, so a team playing on both days could count it as either one or two events.

Might be changing given more cropping up, but I'm not sure.

[jvriezen]

In addition to a week 0 event, our team will likely attend these events:

Gitchi Gummi (two bots, two entries) (July)
MRI: MN Robotics Invitational (October)
Minne Mini (November)
Week 0 (Feb)

Not sure if we'll enter two bots in MRI or Minne Mini or just one.

Its a great way to expose students to events and driving.

[Liam Fay]

Other than the one year when we went to Chezy, 2485 usually only does Battle at the Border (which we host).

[Harrison.Smith]

We have done 2 (TRI, TRR) and are looking at doing maybe 2 or 3 more. Last year we participated in 3 (TRI, RoboReboot, TRR).

[frcguy]

We're going to two: Chezy Champs and Capital City Classic. We thought (at least I did) about squeezing in MadTown Throwdown in but it might be a little too much for us.

[TheBoulderite]

Over the last few years, we've done IRI and CowTown Throwdown. Unfortunately, there aren't many offseason events close to the Denver area.

[Jeremy Germita]

There are 4 offseason events within a ~6 hour drive of us. Here's our offseason history:

2013 - Pre-rookie season - Played with 399's robot (https://scontent-sjc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/1379838_576388812408468_365215847_n.jpg?oh=10ae7f3 a3e6c384c5a001e7075891352&oe=582198A6)
Fall Classic

2014 - Fielded 2 functionally (https://team5012.shutterfly.com/2014-2015/607) different (https://team5012.shutterfly.com/2014-2015/582) robots at Fall Classic and Battle at the Border.
Chezy Champs
Fall Classic(Days 1 and 2 are two separate events, attended both)
Battle at the Border

2015 - Fielded 1 robot at all events.
Chezy Champs
Battle at the Border
Madtown Throwdown(Played 2014 game, built an all new robot (https://scontent-sjc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/12249940_775875865874407_4009630729133576720_n.jpg ?oh=d7486e9d66e5040a68df74cbc6db99a8&oe=581390E3))

Offseason events are an important part of our fall schedule. We spend a lot of time iterating on the season robot in a far less stressful schedule so our students and mentors are ready for the build season. We have been very fortunate to have played with and against the best CA has to offer. These interactions with teams have been pivotal in the following build season.

Offseason events are fun, but I believe the real value in them shows when you set goals for you and your team's experience. Whether it be training your newer members and mentors for the rigors of competition season to just trying out a new robot mechanism, you should always try to make the most out of every offseason.

[Hitchhiker 42]

4557 attended two offseasons and we're planning to do one more in the fall.

Battlecry@WPI 17 - May
Where is Wolcott Invitational - June
Bash at the Beach - September/October


I personally also volunteered at CT State Champs because I wanted to watch some more robots.

Battlecry we used to have fun and just let everyone drive. WIWI, though, we used to train next year's drive team, so who got to drive was a little more restricted.

[BaileyJoseph166]

166 routinely goes to River Rage, Battlecry, and of course Mayhem in Merrimack (we host that). I guess you can count Week Zero too, because we host and run that with FIRST every Feb. but I think its categorized as a 'Pre-season' not an 'Offseason'? We would love to support our friends over on 319 at Battle of the Bay, but we somehow schedule our regional FLL qualifier the same weekend every year.

I would love to see Chop Shop go out and go to more offseasons in the future as they are a ton of fun!

[logank013]

Typically, our team goes to 4. We co-host IRI (with 45 and 1024) and we host IndyRAGE so we go to those usually. Then, we also try to go to CORI (didn't get to go this year due to competition capacity). And we usually end it with CAGE match at another nearby school. We only need to stay at hotels for CORI. All the other events are near enough to be less than a 45 minute drive.

[bobbysq]

We only go to Cowtown, but we're active during summer (Bot improvements for cowtown) and are looking into possibly attending R2OC as well next year.

[ratdude747]

I'm doing 2 events as a volunteer. I scorekept at IRI and will be scorekeeping at Battle for the Bluegrass. I was going to do CAGE match but I'm out of town for 3 weeks straight and I will either be finishing up or driving my work crew home that Saturday :(

First CAGE match I won't be attending... words cannot describe how bummed I am.

[Team3844]

I'm doing 2 events as a volunteer. I scorekept at IRI and will be scorekeeping at Battle for the Bluegrass. I was going to do CAGE match but I'm out of town for 3 weeks straight and I will either be finishing up or driving my work crew home that Saturday :(

First CAGE match I won't be attending... words cannot describe how bummed I am.

excited to have you back at Battle for the Bluegrass again this year Larry.

[jweston]

We're doing 4 this year. Normally we do week 0 at Suffield Shakedown too but we missed it this year.

CT Champs
BattleCry@WPI
Bash at the Beach
Tech Valley Robot Rumble

We love our off-season events. We're extremely grateful to our hosts and the volunteers who make these events possible. Thank you! Fantastic opportunities for recruitment and giving students extra competition experience.

[Justin2648]

2648 has already attended 3 offseason events this year, and still have 3 left that we are planning on going to, bringing our total season event count up to 11 events. That's over 100 qualification matches for one stronghold robot, its crazy to think that it's still running!

Our event list is: WPI District, Rhode Island District, Pine Tree District, NECMP, CMP, BattleCry@WPI, Beantown Blitz, Summer Heat, Mainely SPIRIT (hosted by us), Battle Of the Bay, and RiverRage.

[LlNUX]

We don't usually attend off seasons (because usually there is none in Mexico) however this year we will be able to attend to the "2016 Ozark Mountain Brawl" and we hope to continue being able to attend at least one offseason event per year.