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Re: 101 Things I Wish I'd Known Before My First FIRST Tournament
I have some to add. Partly from talking to new teammates the night before IRI. Sorry if I missed some in the long thread.
Meet people and teams and talk to them, a lot. Don't focus TOO much on your own team, or one task, but incorporate a hefty chunk of social interaction with your experience. Not only is FIRST a great way to network and know interesting people, you'll have a lot more fun (and a marginally higher chance of getting picked if you look at it that way) if you interact with other teams at events. Be friendly and talk! Most every collaboration or partnership starts by meeting at regional events, and you'll meet friends you'll never have gotten to know otherwise.
Find a cool gimmick and abuse it! Sure it's silly, but I bet half of the attention 1714's gotten (not that we have that much notoriety in FIRST (yet!)) is in our cheeseheads, all-polycarbonate robots, and diamond plated crate. Don't let it compromise your competitiveness or fun, but it's certainly a way to improve your regional experience while simultaneously increasing exposure and notoriety.
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Mentor / Drive Coach: 228 (2016-?)
...2016 Waterbury SFs (with 3314, 3719), RIDE #2 Seed / Winners (with 1058, 6153), Carver QFs (with 503, 359, 4607)
Mentor / Consultant Person: 2170 (2017-?)
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College Mentor: 2791 (2010-2015)
...2015 TVR Motorola Quality, FLR GM Industrial Design
...2014 FLR Motorola Quality / SFs (with 341, 4930)
...2013 BAE Motorola Quality, WPI Regional #1 Seed / Delphi Excellence in Engineering / Finalists (with 20, 3182)
...2012 BAE Imagery / Finalists (with 1519, 885), CT Xerox Creativity / SFs (with 2168, 118)
Student: 1714 (2009) - 2009 Minnesota 10,000 Lakes Regional Winners (with 2826, 2470)
2791 Build Season Photo Gallery - Look here for mechanism photos My Robotics Blog (Updated April 11 2014)
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