Quote:
Originally Posted by skimoose
At Where Is Wolcott Invitational which we co-host with our sister team 1071 Max, we have also loaned out in the early years to pre-rookie teams, but now that the event is reaching full capacity regularly that probably will not happen much. Pre-rookie drive teams would probably just be rotated in with our own students. This year, our practice robot will be taking over the role usually filled by team 230's practice robot, that of being team 666 "The Tormentors". This fictitious team has been used as a fill in or placebo robot for no-show teams and driven by volunteer mentors, but this year we hope to use it during the lunch break as a fundraiser for CT FLL programs. Mentors from teams can pay a fee to compete against their own students and their robot for bragging rights. This should be fun!
|
I was going to chime in on how we use practice robots at WIWI, but Art nailed it already.
Just some thoughts to add to that:
- We've had quite a few teams lend out practice robots for different purposes, at our event (228, 230,173, just to name a few). The event organizers are always very thankful to teams for this gracious act. Typically when practice robots are lent to pre-rookie teams, the lending team acts as a guide or mentor to the pre-rookie team.
- Although we have not officially ended our use of pre-rookie robots at WIWI, chances are we won't see them returning. The Invitational filled to max capacity by Week 6 of the regular competition season this year, which is un-precedented for this event. As long as we continue holding Where's Wolcott at the 24 team limit, it'll be hard to fit them in.
- The 666 bot is probably one of our best uses of a practice robot. It's always gone over very well, is a lot of fun. The 230 robot has been great serving as 666 the past few years, and I'm very excited to see the 228 practice bot filling the role this year.