The Use Of Practice Robots At Off Season Events

[AdamHeard]

As posted in that thread, we have entered 2-3 robots in every offseason event except IRI since 2009.

2009 Fall classic
-Practice bot was shared 50/50 between our new students, and some prerookie students (who were terrified to drive it).

2010 Fall classic
-Practice bot was shared 50/50 between our new students, and two prerookies (one turned out to be 3512). Communication issues limited this to only a handful of matches I believe.

2010 Madtown throwdown
-Practice robot was driven by our new students
-Another practice robot was driven by our new students, and then was Given to team 8 after their robot was unable to run despite the objections of a WRRF volunteer (the people from 1323 running the event were fine with us helping out another team).

2011 Fall Classic
-Practice robot was split 50/50
-Prototype robot was driven by our kids.

2011 Madtown Throwdown
-Practice robot was driven by our kids.



At every one of these events, we gladly would've rotated in more pre-rookies if they had been there.

We feel offseason events are a huge bargain, and try to get the most out of them for our new students. Entering multiple robots ensures that EVERY student has to drive, be on pit crew, etc. without sacrificing valuable competition practice time for the dedicated drivers. Even with multiple robots it's hard to make sure everyone gets some time in.

Most of the time these two events we've attended are low in team number, so we're not denying anyone opportunity (rarely is a full 8 alliance bracket even full). I feel that if capacity is a non-issue, every team should be encouraged to enter multiple robots, even if they aren't used for prerookies; the driving experience is valuable and fun for the new, less experienced, or just less involved members of every team. It's cool being able to claim nearly all of our students have driven a competition match.