The quest to Saint-Louis - Rookie teams
 

For the last few days, I tried to follow the thread "Quest to Einstein"... Since I don't think my team has the resources to get to this point, I wanted to know : How can rookie teams can end up in Saint-Louis? I know they can win Rookie All Star or be in the victorious alliance but what should they do, how should they work to perform? Put more emphasis on the robot? On the community?

Re: The quest to Saint-Louis - Rookie teams
 

Hi! Thanks for your question.

I would say robot performance would probably be the most important aspect of rookie teams. I don't think the Rookie All-Star Award gets you to St. Louis, but I'm certain that Highest Rookie Seed Award does. So, as long as you can outrank all the other rookie teams going to your regional, you're going to St. Louis.

Also, there have been rookie teams in the past that have won Chairman's, so community outreach is another way to do it. There's also Engineering Inspiration, another Award that rookies have won. It just depends on how you look at it.

Re: The quest to Saint-Louis - Rookie teams
 

Check your facts. The bold sections are incorrect.
1) Rookie All-Star gets you to St. Louis. Highest Rookie Seed does not.
2) Rookies are not eligible for Chairman's Award. RAS is the "Chairman's for Rookies".

Rookies qualify by RAS, winning the event (or a wildcard passed down the finalist alliance) or very occasionally by winning EI. (Doesn't happen often, mind you.)

Re: The quest to Saint-Louis - Rookie teams
 

Are you sure that Rookie Seed Award gets teams to Saint-Louis? In Montreal, it doesn't... And Rookie All Star does!

And I thought we couldn't apply for chairman until the third year or something like that...

Didn't think about Engineering Inspiration though! That's a good point!

Re: The quest to Saint-Louis - Rookie teams
 

1. Highest rookie seed does NOT qualify you for the World Championship. Rookie All-Star does.

2. Rookies are not eligble to win the Chairman's award. - Eric beat me to it.

I believe at Crossroads 2014, we presented for Chairman's despite not being eligible for the award, just to help our chances of Rooke All-Star.

Re: The quest to Saint-Louis - Rookie teams
 

I wasn't sure about that, thanks for correcting me.

Re: The quest to Saint-Louis - Rookie teams
 

If the team is, hum, restricted on the number of students? I mean, should we still try to present the chairman or just go for the bot?

Re: The quest to Saint-Louis - Rookie teams
 

I honestly have no idea how rookie all start works but I can talk about the robot side of it. In Indiana this past year, we had 3 rookie teams. All 3 made it to Indiana District Championships. Then, we sent 2 rookies to Worlds. Those 3 teams were actually some of the best three teams in Indiana. Now I'm not sure if it was intended to be this way but whether it was intended or not, what happened was a good idea. By the time we hit IN champs in week 6, 5402 and 5484 looked a lot like our team and other successful internal ramps across the nation. 5403 looked a lot like 1024. With 234 and 1024 arguably being the best pair in IN, it makes sense to try to form your team after other successful teams. I know our team this year in our 17th season, looked at robots in week 1 and 2 to see how other successful teams were doing. We actually saw how successful some teams with internal ramps were doing and we thought we'd give it a try. So for week 3, we added a ramp and ended up winning at Kokomo. Thoughout the season, we found some defects in the ramp idea and added other parts to make the ramp work a little better. At the end of it all, we ranked third in Archimededs. So what I'm basically trying to say is, look at what other teams are doing during weeks that you aren't at a competition. A lot of very successful teams look at the top teams, look at what their team is capable of, and see what on they can improve. Don't worry about having the best bot right out of week 1. Most of the best teams win worlds because they make their robot barely resemble what it was in week 1. The biggest most important thing on building a robot is make modifications and constantly try to make it better. I know I saw some really successful teams in week 1 be really bad in week 6 because their week 1 robot looked the same in week 6. I hope this was helpful. Thanks for reading.

Re: The quest to Saint-Louis - Rookie teams
 

I would suggest spending some time preparing a Chariman's award as a rookie team. You can't win the big award, but you'll automatically have content that can be presented to judges in the pit for things like RAS and RI. Also it gets your team used to the process and allows for a certain degree of self reflection as a team which i've found to be useful.

As for the robot: When you're breaking down the game the first few days after kickoff try to focus on one or two tasks and focus on being the best and most consistent robot at your event that preforms those tasks. In 2006 (our rookie year) 1902 built a simple, but reliable, low goal scoring robot with a fairly rudimentary set of tools and managed to be a division finalist at the Championships that year.

Re: The quest to Saint-Louis - Rookie teams
 

Hello, my team was fortunate enough to be able to not only qualify for World's via Rookie All-Star, but also be a divisional finalist for Curie Division and the Curie/Carver Rookie All-Stars. Now to answer your question it is honestly all about what you are after being a Rookie All-Star is honestly probably the easiest way to make it to worlds since you are only competing with 1-4 other teams for the award (at a regional.) However, to get the award you need to demonstrate strong community outreach as well as show that your are going to be a great team in upcoming years. So, therefore you also need to prove that you are capable of making a somewhat decent robot. Just try to do 1-2 things well on your robot. Now as a recap more community outreach = better chance at Rookie All-Star, but a better robot = better chance to be selected for an alliance at Worlds if you can find a balance between the two you should qualify for Worlds and have a shot during alliance selections.

Re: The quest to Saint-Louis - Rookie teams
 

Oh, cool, thank you for the advice!

Re: The quest to Saint-Louis - Rookie teams
 

Yeah no problem best of luck to you!

Re: The quest to Saint-Louis - Rookie teams
 

Same for you :) See you at St-Louis maybe!

Re: The quest to Saint-Louis - Rookie teams
 

For the RAS award the robot is a part of the equation - but the judges look at the overall showing by the team. How you do in the PITs, what your safety regiment looks like, how your fans/members get engaged, and YES, a chairman's presentation will do wonders.

In a regional event you may have 1-7 rookie teams (depending on each regional and the year) so it varies in this type of tournament. If you concentrate on growing the team, and the team structure, it will go a long way.

PM me and I will share a little more on what we did our rookie season.