FRC Blog - Australia Regional Event Logistics

[The_ShamWOW88]

I think it's great that we're finally starting to see some major competition growth outside of North America....and it's going to be pretty cool to see some of the larger teams make it to Australia....

[Mark McLeod]

The cheaper solution is to register two teams. One for Australia could only cost $5000 (as a vet team).
Better yet, order the parts delivered to Australia and do that build there as a robot-in-one-day on Thursday of competition.
Then you don't have to rush back.
You could even scrap it after salvaging valuable parts or donate the resulting robot for next year's pre-rookie use instead of bringing it back.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

The cheaper solution is to register two teams. One for Australia could only cost $5000 (as a vet team).
Better yet, order the parts delivered to Australia and do that build there as a robot-in-one-day on Thursday of competition.
Then you don't have to rush back.

Is the FedEx shipping voucher teams get not valid for this? We used our voucher for Alamo this year and paid to get the robot shipped to St Louis this year since it would be more expensive to send it to Texas.

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by tcjinaz

The multiple robot thing would take some real close inspection of the rules. Bag & tag two, one for competition in North America, and another for the Antipodes?

The rules, as they were written last year, wouldn't allow this. Per R1 "Each registered FRC team may enter only one (1) ROBOT (or ‘Robot’, which to a reasonably astute observer, is a Robot built for FRC) into the 2014 FRC." That's not to say the rules can't change, and personally I think it's a great solution to a complicated problem. It would require some serious discussion with FIRST to get the rule changed, and I bet there would be additional caveats in place as well - you can't just build two robots, they have to be built identical, you can only do it if you get exemption from FIRST ahead of time (to prevent teams from building two just to go to two different near-by regionals and trying to get some gain from that), etc.

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

The cheaper solution is to register two teams. One for Australia could only cost $5000 (as a vet team).
Better yet, order the parts delivered to Australia and do that build there as a robot-in-one-day on Thursday of competition.
Then you don't have to rush back.

This... could very well be 100% legal. It doesn't violate any robot rules (each "team" is only entering one robot), and we already have precedence for teams splitting into two, schools hosting multiple teams, and teams working together to produce nearly identical robots.

Of course, it gets extremely interesting if you consider both "teams" earning a spot at champs - do they both compete? Could we possibly see them in different divisions and facing off against each other on Einstein? And since we're talking about a Hall Of Fame team... does the "new team" get to go after Chairman's, potentially resulting in a "double HoF"?

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

And since we're talking about a Hall Of Fame team... does the "new team" get to go after Chairman's, potentially resulting in a "double HoF"?

The chances of this happening are practically nil. Winning RCA requires showing sustained culture change. This is especially hard for a new team to do. You COULD see them winning EI as that lacks the requirement of sustained culture change.

There is also already a double HoF (191 if I recall, won in 1992 and 1994). And it's possible again (HoF teams can compete 5 years or more after their induction).

Edit: The new team wouldn't be eligible for rookie awards either as they would likely not meet FIRST's definition of rookie.

[Lil' Lavery]

Worth noting that if you follow the guidelines posted by FIRST, it would be impossible for a district team to compete in Australia, as it only leaves one weekend left to compete back home (week 6).

[Wetzel]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

Worth noting that if you follow the guidelines posted by FIRST, it would be impossible for a district team to compete in Australia, as it only leaves one weekend left to compete back home (week 6).

Whilst likely undesirable, you could choose to only participate in one district event.

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

The cheaper solution is to register two teams. One for Australia could only cost $5000 (as a vet team).
Better yet, order the parts delivered to Australia and do that build there as a robot-in-one-day on Thursday of competition.
Then you don't have to rush back.

That's actually a great idea.