"The 24" - Off-season Idea

[Alex2614]

Some of us here at MARS have an idea that keeps floating back up to discussion every year, but never gets anywhere.

"The 24!"

What does everybody think of having a 24-straight-hour survival-of-the-fittest off-season event? It would start sometime on a Friday or Saturday evening, run through the night, and have the elims sometime the next day. Teams would need to do some serious strategizing, such as having multiple drive teams to exchange throughout the event, and figure out all of the logistics of managing their personnel and keeping them rested. I mean, we all do late nights at robotics, don't we? I'm a non-engineering mentor, and I was even there with my students multiple times at 2:00am, and even at 4:00am one night this season. So, why not do this at competition? We never sleep at competitions, either (don't lie to yourself). So why not make it real? We could even try to get Mountain Dew or RedBull or someone of the like to sponsor the event.

So, what do you think? Good idea/bad? Would you be interested in participating?

[Akash Rastogi]

At the heart of it, I love the thought of something this hardcore.

[Yipyapper]

Originally Posted by Alex2614

Some of us here at MARS have an idea that keeps floating back up to discussion every year, but never gets anywhere.

"The 24!"

What does everybody think of having a 24-straight-hour survival-of-the-fittest off-season event? It would start sometime on a Friday or Saturday evening, run through the night, and have the elims sometime the next day. Teams would need to do some serious strategizing, such as having multiple drive teams to exchange throughout the event, and figure out all of the logistics of managing their personnel and keeping them rested. I mean, we all do late nights at robotics, don't we? I'm a non-engineering mentor, and I was even there with my students multiple times at 2:00am, and even at 4:00am one night this season. So, why not do this at competition? We never sleep at competitions, either (don't lie to yourself). So why not make it real? We could even try to get Mountain Dew or RedBull or someone of the like to sponsor the event.

So, what do you think? Good idea/bad? Would you be interested in participating?

I looked at it and originally thought it was a crazy idea... then I looked at it again and it still sounds like a crazy idea.

But crazy ideas tend to produce some excellent results. I think this is an excellent idea, although I'd imagine it'd be hard to get this organized and sponsored without it being an official FRC event.

Other than that, sounds pretty awesome, competitive and fun!

[Justin Montois]

We'd be there in a second. Great idea.

[Steven Donow]

This sounds like one of the most fun, insane, miserable experiences ever.


Of course I'd be game for it

[Gregor]

I'm down.

[ghostmachine360]

I'm in to referee, or emcee; whatever is needed.

[EricDrost]

I'd be there in a heartbeat.

[EricH]

A couple considerations:

Batteries. I would suggest that any team hosting such an event clean out the local supplies of FRC-legal batteries long enough in advance to charge them. Then all the attendees bring all their batteries and chargers. Any batteries the hosts don't want can be distributed to teams who need more after the event.

Quiet/Sleeping rooms or other arrangements. Some folks will want to sleep, at some point, and probably want someplace somewhat comfy to do it in. I'd suggest some rooms off to one side, out of the way, probably at least 4 (2 for adults, 2 for students, and separate male/female rooms for both age groups). This will also simplify some of the logistics for teams running rotations.

Would I personally be up for doing it? Possibly. But I do run out of awakeness after a couple dozen hours or less.

[sanddrag]

As a 12-year participant and now lead teacher of our team, I'd pass on this. 5 years ago, I'd probably be there, but now, I like at least a few hours separation between my days.

[Sam_Mills]

This sounds like it could be one of the most fun offseasons possible, I would definitely be in.

Only concern, people who haven't slept in days should not be using power tools or anything like that. There would have to be a prep day or two, to minimize issues with doing things last second.

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

As a 12-year participant and now lead teacher of our team, I'd pass on this. 5 years ago, I'd probably be there, but now, I like at least a few hours separation between my days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh2sWSVRrmo

[Alex2614]

Originally Posted by EricH

A couple considerations:

Quiet/Sleeping rooms or other arrangements. Some folks will want to sleep, at some point, and probably want someplace somewhat comfy to do it in. I'd suggest some rooms off to one side, out of the way, probably at least 4 (2 for adults, 2 for students, and separate male/female rooms for both age groups). This will also simplify some of the logistics for teams running rotations

There are a number of places in the Morgantown area in which we could host such an event that have hotels nearby or even in the venue itself. Other venues have rooms in which we could set up cots or mattresses. If use a hotel, my idea would be to block out a couple rooms as a part of the registration fee. If we go the high school route, there are areas in which to sleep, including two separate gymnasiums, a cafeteria, and a lobby, as well as a hotel a couple blocks away. The university stadium has a number of places like this as well, with a couple hotels in walking distance. And this is a really safe city (especially the areas we are considering hosting) so there would be no need to stress over walking a couple blocks in the middle of the night. There would definitely be some kind of sleeping arrangement made. The idea would be to require teams to think out their sleep rotations on the fly around their match schedule.

Those of us more hardcore competitors will just have lots of coffee and mountain dew and tough the entire thing out

[JediMasterSaaga]

This sounds like a great idea.

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by ghostmachine360

I'm in to referee, or emcee; whatever is needed.

Can you do queuing and field reset too, all at the same time?

Cause I don't think you're going to get too many other volunteers. Working 8-10 hours is brutal enough.