FRC Blogged - Frank Answers Fridays: October 4, 2013

[AllenGregoryIV]

Moving VEX Worlds before January would be really difficult for a lot of teams. We help run 6 events in the Houston area and a huge portion of those teams don't do FRC, so they need something to do during the spring as well. Many of the teams aren't as well organized and don't start building their robot till October. Also one of the big advantages of a long season is that teams get to iterate more on their designs.

With the new State/Region Championship model that is being introduced into VEX it would be even harder to fit these events before a pre-January World Championships.

We have many teams that do VEX and FRC in our area and most of the people that run the VEX events down here also run FRC teams so our calendar is pushed mostly into the fall. However our South Texas Championship will be held on Feb 22nd (The Saturday between stop build and week 1 regionals) to make it open to the most teams. We also hold one event during FRC build season that is run by a non-FRC team.

Another reason it's difficult to move VEX Worlds before January is that it's harder to travel during that time frame. With the winter holidays, Thanksgiving, and semester exams you might have to have it in the middle of November to keep clear of everything that's only a few months from the start of the school year.