[Wayne TenBrink]

Gotta do the "Home" event (West MI - week 3) and try to avoid consecutive weekends. We prefer to have one event under our belt before our home event, which pushes us to a week 1 event.

I used to prefer to sit out Week 1 so we could see how the game played out & plan our hardware improvements before we had to compete. However, since the MI district format guarantees us at least 2 events, I have developed a fondness for week 1. Every team designs and builds their robots in an experience vacuum. The initial hardware and strategy is based entirely on their own imagination and planning. Nobody knows how things will work out, and everyone is in the same boat. This "newness" is soon lost as the game develops. Continuous improvement is great aspect of FRC, but it is cool to be there at the beginning.