[Ken Streeter]

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

I believe at least one regional is necessary. ...

If a team wants to ditch another regional in lieu of more off-seasons, I guess that's a valid choice for them to make. I believe 1519 does something like this.

We do make the conscious decision of competing in lots of off-season tournaments. This year, we attended only one regular-season tournament, and have six offseason tournaments currently planned, although we may try to get to one or two more. We're even hoping to field two robots at quite a few of these offseason events, space-permitting.

What is it that we like about the offseason events?

• More time in between the events to continue to make robot enhancements and implement new features.
• Less competitiveness, so that students can drive the robot that may not be the best drivers, but still want to have a chance to do so in a real competition. (The same holds for pit crews.)
• More time to socialize and interact with other teams at events.
• Lower registration fees to help stretch our budget farther.
• Single-day tournaments to avoid mentors needing to take days off from work to attend the tournaments.

That said, we'd love to be able to attend a second regular season tournament as well as a whole bunch of offseason events, but we think the offseason events are a fantastic value!