[CaityDawh]

I believe one of the easiest ways to succeed at competition is to scout. Even if your team don't have 6 scouts, a few dedicated students can take notes on the different teams they see compete. Those notes are often invaluable.

Scouting doesn't just have to be for creating a pick list. The data collected while scouting can help teams to know what strategies can be effective in certain matches. It's always better to go into a match strategy meeting knowing what you're talking about, and being backed with data, than just going in blind.

Good scouting and good strategy can turn an iffy, or okay robot into a #1 seed, or even the Regional/District winner.

And of course always scout your own robot. It's easy to get stuck in the mind frame of "this what we wanted to do," and not, "this is what we can do." If you scout your own team, you will get hard data that you can not argue with. You will get a sense of what your robot can actually do.