Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

With the success of the inaugural Orange County Regional some members of OCRA (Orange County Robotics Alliance) and FIRST OC would love to get the discussion started on hosting our very own offseason event that would benefit teams this upcoming fall.

The growth in our small county has been huge over the last several years and we want to make sure every team in our community feels welcome and prepared for the upcoming 2017 season. This event will be great practice for new drive teams, robot rebuilds, and more!

The event would include:
-A full competition field (no wood fields here)
-Workshops led by top students and mentors in the OC Area
-Q and A sessions with industry professionals
and more!

We would love to figure out what the community would love to see at this event, plus seasons in which we would host.

Thanks!

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

This would be great. Especially for us in HB since we welcomed a new team at Huntington Beach HS this year, and a new team should be joining from Edison HS, too.

If a venue is needed, I can always lobby my school for use of the gym. It is really big, and early Fall may not have too many sports going on.

...also, is this going to conflict with the LA robotics event held at Valencia HS? Or is this more workshop, less competition?

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

This event is not associated with LA robotics and will include a full real field, unlike that of Fall Classic.
SCRFF's event is the end of September, we will plan an event whenever a majority of teams interested can make it, understandably a lot of teams will be participating in Fall Classic. :)
We want this to be more event and with workshops sprinkled in between.

Thanks for the location offer, we will look into it as we have some other locations we are looking at.

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

We'd love to attend, but it would be very useful if it did not interfere with the battle at the border competition either. We would hate to have to decide between the two events.

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

This is great! Hopefully you guys don't mind some LA area teams coming down for a visit!!

We used to go down to San Diego for the Holy Cows workshops but they didn't hold it this past year. I know you are looking at mainly an event but if you had a couple really good workshops I could see it being very helpful to lots of teams. Its great to inspire students early with both some workshops and a taste of competition.

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

thanks! We want to incorporate our usual OC workshops into this as well. The more people we have willing to teach classes the more we can offer. Thanks!

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

We would be interested if it was September or later in the Fall.
Doing offseason in China and robot has to go to California anyway and back, before heading home to Hawaii.

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

Nice job FIRSTOC! Another off-season event in SoCal is going to be awesome! I just hope it is scheduled so we can make all three.

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

Willing to have a team from Arizona join you?? We are looking at doing some off season events and since you're only a short 5hr away, it would be good to meet some new teams!

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

CRUSH from AZ might also be interested if the event was open to out of state teams. AZ teams have the state championship in mid-October, so before that, in September or August would work best for us (again, if it ends up being open to out of state teams).

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

Consider us interested.

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

This is awesome! So many out of state teams are interested.

Our thoughts right now are Oct 8/9!

But we are open to more suggestions.

Fall Classic is Sep 24/25 and I expect Battle at the Border will be late Oct, the other 2 offseasons in So Cal.

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

I could see us getting on board with this.

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

Would this be a two day tournament or 2 separate one-day tournaments?

Also, have you guys made any decisions on pricing? Or allowing teams to compete with 2 robots?

Consider Team 4 interested.

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

Cobra Commanders are always welcome in sunny SoCal! Along with CRUSH, Dragons, Plasma, Team Paradise, CAUTION, N.E.R.D.S, Firebirds, Falcon, Coconuts and all the other fun AZ teams!

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

This would be a 2 day tournament with possible load in on Friday Night.

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

We would be very interested in participating as well!

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

Thanks! You guys are always a treat to compete with!

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

In addition, if there are any workshops your teams would love to see please comment. We have a full list of tentative options, but would love to see what teams wish they saw at other workshops they attended.

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

We're so pumped to be co-hosting this event with Code Orange!

#beachblitz #threechamps

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

Although we probably couldn't go, I hope this gets off the ground. This would be a really fun event to watch over a livestream!

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

This event will for sure have a great live stream. A lot of our committee members on 3309 have great cinematography/ live streaming experience. No blurry streams here.

#beachblitz

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

Like Connor said, we're down. A lot of our FIRST alumni (from 294, 1538, 3309, 687, 5124, 2637, ....) would love to come down back home and play with their teams! We'd also be really down to throw some workshops if needed!

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

I want to see mentor matches.

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

Cooler Master might be interested, please send me a promo packet when all the details are worked out.

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

I'd rather watch blindfolded kids drive. Matches would be more competitive that way.

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

If we have time, it's a huge possibility!

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

Team 687 is interested!

(In case it wasn't clear, Team 5499 is also interested! :p)

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

Truth. You get rusty after ten years! ;)

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

100% crispy

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

I bet that's what 2009 looked a lot like from stands

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

THIS.... WOULD..... BE..... SO...... COOL.....


now to just convince my team to let me drive the robot again. The last time they let me........

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

And while we drive the robot they get to drive OUR CARS. How sweet would that be?

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

YES YES YES!

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

Hey teams!
Please fill out our survey so we can find out which days benefit the most teams.
Thanks!!
http://goo.gl/forms/hBEgPDxlsdBmO9VO2

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

We're still working out the details for the event, but we have settled on a name: BeachBlitz 2016!

Make sure to fill out the BeachBlitz ideal date/time survey so we can get a better idea of what weekend works best for the teams who want to attend.

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

Regarding possible dates, keep in mind CheesyChamps and Fall Classic are Sep24-25.

Oh, yeah - SAT testing is Oct 1.

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

Hey all!
We are still working out event details and will be releasing full specs about the event in the upcoming month.

But first I wanted to share our list of workshops we plan on offering at the event for all teams in attendance.

-Scouting 101
A basic workshop on the importance of scouting and how to generate an accurate pick list. This includes resources on paper scouting and online scouting systems.
- Fundraising/Business/Marketing
A workshop all about creating a sustainable team. Whether it be through sponsors, marketing, mentors recuritment, student recuritment, and more.
-Rookie Teams
A workshop focused on upcoming teams in order to create a sustainable start. We will share grant tutorials and basic engineering principles.
-Awards (including submitted awards)
How to present your team to judges in the pit and how to write submitted awards (Chairman's, Woodie Flowers, Dean's List, Entrepreneurship)
-High Level Match Strategy and Drive Teams
How to formulate effective strategy on the spot at competitions and how to communicate that with drive teams. Also how to effictively create a calm and collected drive team.
-FRC Design Strategy
A workshop on how to analyze the game and pick the correct design for your team.
-FRC Control System
A tutorial on how to set up the control system for the 2017 season.
-Intro to Robot Programming (java)
A basic intro into object oriented programming
-Intro to Electronics
A basic intro into sensors, speed controllers, and more!
-Vision Tracking (advanced)
A lesson on how to create an accurate and simple vision tracking system.
-FRC Manufacturing (Basic Tools- Advanced)
How to efficiently design parts in order to make them easy to machine. A tutorial on different machines and how teams can utilize each to their advantage.
-Women in FRC: How to be taken seriously
A workshop that will aid women in the transition into being effective leaders without the fear of not being taken seriously.
-Transitioning from FRC to College
A workshop that will help high school seniors in their college application process, as well as how to enjoy FIRST after high school!


If you have any suggestions please reply, we would love to hear them.
Thanks!

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

Great lineup of workshops! Kudos to OCFirst.

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

Suggestion - How to build a strong network of mentors.

One of those power teams with 80 mentors should volunteer to run it :p

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

Great suggestion!

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

What about PC building?

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

Interested in teaching it? We would absolutely love it!

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

Sounds like a very interesting and unique idea.

A hands on demonstration( with participants having the opportunity to try plugging in cards etc.) with instructions on topics such as Power Supply selection or things like working out if that motherboard will fit in that case could be really helpful. Building computers can be daunting from the perspective of not being sure if the components will work well together, some teaching and demonstrations on those topics seems like it would be really helpful and useful for team members.

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

Sponsored by r/PCMasterRace, right?

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

Can't I just download a computer and print it with my 3D printer? Why make it more complicated than that?

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

I'd suggest liquid cooling for that, the PLA CPU on my 3D printed computer melted when I tried to run Solidworks. When I last checked 3D printed CPU's didn't meet the minimum system requirements.

The session on PC building could help dispel some of the common PC building myths

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event
 

Well I don't think a date has been set for this event so once that is finalized I will work with the team to see if we have people available.

Re: Orange County, CA Offseason Event