"The 24" - Off-season Idea

[120to40]

I would be all for it. Not only would you need a good bot but also a deep drive team which could be an equalizing factor for newer teams. The only thing I can't see is how you would involve 40+ teams at a regional at a time.

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by A_Reed

As a referee, I would have to say no! Only because by the end of the day on Friday at a normal event I am already beat. The judgement, comprehension and patience of the referee crew would be paper thin by morning matches the next day.

Suspend all rules requiring refs (no penalties). Honor system.

Also, no bumpers, just because.

[ken3255]

I'd be all for it. Where can I sign up?

[ghostmachine360]

Originally Posted by Travis Hoffman

Suspend all rules requiring refs (no penalties). Honor system.

Also, no bumpers, just because.

Is anarchy an option here? Because I still want 45 seconds of blizzard play at the end. Sleep-deprived students + crazy amount of frisbees in the air = frisbees to the head will wake you up. Or knock you out.

[JohnFogarty]

Kyle you weren't the one getting hit with frisbee's at Peachtree like I was.

[Alexa Stott]

Originally Posted by joelg236

Why does it have to be 24 hours straight? I love the idea of playing so many matches and doing so much work, but why couldn't you spread it over a few days? Maybe even a week-long event? I guess it might be tougher on people's schedules, but it would likely be easier on people (especially mentors and parents).

I think a week-long event would probably be tougher on mentors and parents. Unless teachers or stay-at-home parents were the only adults there, I don't see it working out. Many mentors already have to use vacation days to attend FRC events during the regular season. I don't see many being too keen on taking an entire week off. Not to mention many students work as well. During high school, my boss was really good about giving me time off during build and competition season, but I don't know if that graciousness would have extended to an entire week off for more robotics.

I also can't help but think people might, well, get a little bored. Imagine 20-21 hours straight of just qualification matches. You'd see the same teams playing each other over and over and over again. That's not really exciting.

[bEdhEd]

I would have to wonder if the audience would be able to cheer and scream for 24 straight hours.

[Sam390250]

This would certainly be a sight to see. I remember times I wanted to hide out and sleep in my pit at night to get some extra work done ;]

I definitely imagine a lot of students dropping like flies through the evening. Tensions would probably rise within teams as well, showing the teams who can truly work together in any circumstance. The stands might be full of sleeping patrons by 2am, and zombies into the early hours of the morning.

It would be interesting to see how this could play out, but I know I would not be able to survive without sleep or a shower for 24 hours at robotics straight.

[Alexa Stott]

To add to my previous post: as someone on the planning committee for an off-season, this also sounds like a logistical nightmare.

For events hosted at a school, you need to have the custodial staff on hand. This would likely be hard to convince the district to allow, especially during the summer. I'd imagine events hosted at other venues have similar rules regarding having people from their own staff at the event. Just think what would happen if the bathrooms didn't get cleaned for the entire event. Gross.

Then there is the issue of concessions and having people to work them. Most of the volunteers that come from outside of the team end up in positions that require some knowledge of how an event goes (so things like queuing, field reset, reffing, etc.), which means most of our concessions are run by parents. Again, good luck getting parents willing to do this.

Aside from that, you'd most likely need 2 sets of volunteers, as it's pretty unreasonable to ask someone to stand on the side of the field for 24 hours straight or MC for that long. Again, as someone involved in planning an off-season, it's not that easy to come up with one set of volunteers, let alone two. Throw in that some of the staff will get the short end of the stick and end up with the graveyard shift, I don't think it'd be incredibly appealing. Additionally, while the actual event may only be 24 hours, you'd also have to consider the setup and takedown, which takes hours to do.

To add to this, teams would probably also need two separate subteams to relieve the other when they need a break. The safety issue of having people who haven't slept in a long time operating/lifting/repairing robots has been discussed fairly extensively in this thread. Speaking from personal experience, it's pretty difficult to get a team of 5-6 students who would be able to make it to a summer off-season. Many students go away on vacation, to visit relatives, to summer camps/programs, or simply just need a break.

If you can figure out a way to make this work and take care of all those issues, then more power to you.

Perhaps a different idea would be 24 hours of robotics-related fun? Have teams come in the night before for an all-night social/movie night (and, of course, allow teams and individuals to opt out) followed by the competition the next day?

[PayneTrain]

Alex, I am notorious for dropping everything to do whatever crazy FIRST idea anyone comes up with, but this is going to be a tough one to pull off.

Nonetheless, offseasons get me irrationally excited, and I want to help if I can.

[jblay]

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.

[karomata]

I love the idea, I have also always wanted to see an offseason where the game is modified to run for like 10 minutes per match, but I guess for this game you would have to find a way to have the discs re-entered into the field.

[Alexa Stott]

Originally Posted by karomata

I love the idea, I have also always wanted to see an offseason where the game is modified to run for like 10 minutes per match, but I guess for this game you would have to find a way to have the discs re-entered into the field.

Sorry, but I don't see that working...There are already way too many matches where robots just sort of don't do much of anything. Also, we'd be lucky if we were able to do much of anything after a few minutes as our battery would start to drop really low under load.

[smcmahon]

2656 is interested

[IKE]

I have done a lot of 24 hour races for Lemons and Chumpcar. This is a horrible and awesome idea at the same time.

Nelson Ledges calls theirs Longest Day. I would recommend hosting the weekend of the time change, and making it 25 hours long and calling it FIRST longest day.