[Edxu]

We assign a Pit Crew that this year has 3 Mechanical, 1 Energy Systems and 1 Programmer with 1 mentor standing by.

We try and keep our Drive Team out of the pit as much as possible for a few reasons:
-Drive Team Debrief is extremely important. We have a team member whose job at comp is to record and bring match video to the pits from the stands. This lets our drive team reflect and think about what they would've done differently during that match, or to see if they could've made some different calls.
-Drive team needs to rest and re-focus. If you put all the pressure of driving/operating and then fixing the robot on a short deadline on the same few people, they'd have to be superhuman to not burn out quickly. Giving the drivers a chance to rest and re-focus also lets them start every match anew.
-In the case of a long turnaround between matches, the Drive Team also has a chance to go to the stands and watch other team's matches if they want to. This gives them a chance to see what other drivers are doing, and maybe they'll discover a new technique or habit that they want to learn and improve on.

We also try and keep general team members out of the pits when possible, because as you mentioned it gets crowded and by extension a little less safe if there are a lot of people in the pits. In fact, we ask them to stay away entirely when the pit crew is at work or the robot is returning from a match.