Internal Competition?

[MrMARVINMan]

Hi everyone!

This is someone trying to find something for their team to do during the off-season. Obviously, there are off-season events and all that, but I also want to create something to teach new students what build season will be like and help them develop the skills to do well during that portion of the season. After a while of thinking, I finally decided to create an "Internal Competition" (IC) for my team. This is a game designed by students to be played during the off-season by other students. The Internal Competition splits the regular team and its new members into two sub-teams: Red and Blue. These two teams would compete in three ways: First, an actual game played on a modified Recycle Rush field. Second, a competition between robot reveal videos. Third, a competition between "Funding Presentations" similar to a Chairman's presentation. I have some positive feedback from my team about doing this over the summer, but I was wondering what other teams would think about this. Would it take up too much time during the off-season? Would it be too expensive? Are there better ways to train new students?

Write your opinions below and tell me what you think about an FRC internal competition!

[Sperkowsky]

sounds like a good idea if you have a big enough team. Another thing Ive heard other teams doing is recreate a robot for a past frc game. for instance choosing to make a second rebound rumble robot or something of that nature.

[Jay O'Donnell]

We do this every fall with our new students using VEX robots. It's a lot of fun and gets new members involved quickly.

[Ty Tremblay]

If you have a way of making your robots quickly, this is a great idea. I wouldn't recommend any intense manufacturing for this as it takes a lot of time and isn't exactly the most engaging thing to do on a FRC team. Like Jay said, VEX is a great solution for this.

If you don't have ample access to VEX kits. You could have a drivetrain design competition. You could establish criteria that a drivetrain must meet (weight, capabilities, sensors, etc) and judge the two drivetrains at the end. This would also leave you with two drivetrain prototypes to choose from next year and iterate upon.

[Shrub]

This sounds absolutely beautiful. Although I don't think our team has the current resources to do it, it would be immensely fun to do and an easy way to teach students what other subteams do over the summer.