my team doesn't go to any off season events, mostly for us the big part of the cometition is the build, we don't care that much about the competition. during the off season we are working on different designs for drives or the programing or just teaching the newbies the ropes. i don't put much emphasis on any of the competitions(though it was hard after being the alliance captian for my team an nationals in 03 ^_^) i don't see the point in the off season competitons. i would much rather spend money in design or even in getting involved with the sumo robots, one 587's projects this summer.
but that's just my take on things
