[GCentola]

Essentially, the first two days are about stategy and determining what we want our robot to do. during the first two, our team will brainstorm every idea we can possibly think of, and then decide which ones are realistic. Then we put these aside and work on stategy. What elements of the game are most important, what do we think is the best way to approach the game, keeping in mind that a robot that tries to do everything is only effective if it does everything really well...which often doesnt happen.
After we come up with a good starting strategy, we apply the brainstormed ideas and figure out which design will work best. After we have a better understanding of what the robot will do, what functions are the most important and how we will go about the game (after lots of game discussion with the previous strategy discussion) we will run through multiple human simulations of the game applying different strategies.
The actual layout and shcedule of this plan varies from year to year, but it all happens within the first two days. Also, each member of our team recieves a copy of the rules so that we can have them for reference and general discussion. Hope this helps! If you need any clarification let me know!