Missouri Robotics State Championship

[Jon Stratis]

If either Missouri or Ohio has any quesitons, I'd be happy to help fill in details surrounding the Minnesota State Robotics Championship. It's a State High School League event, takes place shortly after champs, and is run as close to an official FRC event as possible.

Some things to think about:
- Load in the night before (if possible), and utilize that evening for inspections and getting every robot connected to the field (connected is very, very important! You don't want to show up day of and have robots just sitting there).
- Have extra volunteers on hand to help with queueing (preferably inspectors) - there are very quick turn around times, and teams will be very stressed. Having a volunteer available to help every team get into queue instead of the walk-by "You're up, get in the queue!" will help with nerves. We had an issue with this our first year, but have since handled it better and relieved some of the stress on teams
- Inspections are important! Please, please, please don't make it sound optional or at the discretion of the inspectors - make it required for everyone. We've found inspection issues at State's that were missed for teams that attended two regionals and Champs, including safety issues (I remember one team that somehow was operating at 150 PSI...).
- Talk with the qualifying teams attending champs well before they go to champs. Shipping the robot back from champs does NOT guarantee it'll be there 3 weeks later for the competition, and it's something most teams won't think about. Teams have two options - they can work with FIRST to get expedited shipping, or they can take the robot home with them, so long as they have permission beforehand.

We've been running our event for several years now, and by this point it's pretty smooth.