District Event Explanation

[Richard Wallace]

The biggest change I have noticed is a much shorter time elapsed between matches at District events.

Bring a match-ready robot, or don't expect competitive success. You won't have time to catch up. Average pit time is about twenty-five minutes, and drive teams often move directly back into queue after leaving the field.

[Mr V]

As Richard mentioned a team may want to change how they approach the build season and build their robot.

If you are a team that has only attended one Regional in the past you will now play many more matches than you have in the past. Even a team that has typically attended 2 Regionals will most likely see more matches. So durability of your components or the ability to quickly change items that are likely to wear out or be broken is of high importance.

The other thing to consider is targeting winning awards. Awards earn you points, 5 for most of them. In the PNW district there typically have only been 1 or 2 points separating the last team to earn an invitation to DCMP and the highest team on the list that did not make it.

As others have mentioned because the time is so short between the last district events and DCMP you need to be prepared if you do earn a spot at the last minute. By the 4th or 5th week some teams do know that they are guaranteed a spot but quite a few may not know until just a few days before the event.

So I highly suggest monitoring the points you have earned, and if it looks like you may qualify start the process to get approval from the school, and let them know that it is a maybe. Also consider working on having the funding available before you have 2 days to make the commitment and pay. That may mean getting a sponsor to commit to paying a portion of the DCMP fees IF you qualify or it may just mean raising more funds and if you don't use them having a head start for next season.

The other thing is if your team has been a 1 Regional team is to plan on a longer season/more meetings. The big advantage of the District system is that guaranteed second play where you can; fix something that didn't work, try a different strategy, ect and apply the lessons learned from your first event (or second if you qualify for DCMP).