How many off season events?

[Brian Maher]

Offseason driver practice really pays off during official competition. In addition, both my teams had their best robots ever this season and want to get more play time in. They both have a decently busy offseason planned:
1257:

• MidKnight Mayhem
• IRI
• Ramp Riot (hopefully)
• Brunswick Eruption

2791:

• Battlecry@WPI
• Tech Valley Robot Rumble
• Brunswick Eruption

I just wish there were more offseasons near 2791. I'm not a huge fan of only having one that is less than a two hour drive away.

Originally Posted by Jay O'Donnell

229 is hoping to go to one in the fall.

Is it by chance Robot Rumble?

[swootton]

We have traditionally only done 2 off season and 1 pre season until Connecticut started doing a state championship, then we started doing 4. This year is different. We have done 3 already and have 3 more that we are planning on attending. 4 of these events are with teams we don't normally play with unless we see them at district champs or worlds. We have made so many new friends and wonder why we didn't do this sooner.

[jajabinx124]

2052 attended 3 events last offseason:
Gitchi Gummi
Minnesota Robotics Invitational
Minnie Mini Regional

I know for a fact 2052 attended 1 event this offseason:
IRI

I'm assuming they'll attend MRI and Minnie Mini again this year making it 3 again. (I'm assuming since I'm not on the team anymore- just an alumni)

[Jay O'Donnell]

Originally Posted by BMSOTM

Is it by chance Robot Rumble?

That is one of the few we've discussed.

[mwmac]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

My team goes to one (Rah Cha Cha Ruckus) and I, myself, will be going to 12 by the end of the off season.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Koko Ed again.

Tators like to do one off-season event each year. We are looking forward to playing with our California friends at Capital City Classic in October...

[Sperkowsky]

We are doing 2 this year one in the fall and one in the spring. I am doing 5 or 6.

Offseason events are fun ways to train new students and connect with the community for a fraction of the price of regionals. It's also a great place to try out new volunteer roles.

[GeeTwo]

This is our first year doing an off season event (Red Stick Rumble). In previous years, we did intramural events with locally generated games, but we did not get enough participation to make these viable. We had a nice corps of last year's freshmen and sophomores come in to clean out the new/smaller build space and get the robot ready for RSR, as well as support a variety of demos for our sponsors, community events, and our "feeder" teams.

[EricH]

One, typically--SCRRF Fall Classic. Format of that one recently has been as back-to-back one-day events, so a team playing on both days could count it as either one or two events.

Might be changing given more cropping up, but I'm not sure.

[jvriezen]

In addition to a week 0 event, our team will likely attend these events:

Gitchi Gummi (two bots, two entries) (July)
MRI: MN Robotics Invitational (October)
Minne Mini (November)
Week 0 (Feb)

Not sure if we'll enter two bots in MRI or Minne Mini or just one.

Its a great way to expose students to events and driving.

[Liam Fay]

Other than the one year when we went to Chezy, 2485 usually only does Battle at the Border (which we host).

[Harrison.Smith]

We have done 2 (TRI, TRR) and are looking at doing maybe 2 or 3 more. Last year we participated in 3 (TRI, RoboReboot, TRR).

[frcguy]

We're going to two: Chezy Champs and Capital City Classic. We thought (at least I did) about squeezing in MadTown Throwdown in but it might be a little too much for us.

[TheBoulderite]

Over the last few years, we've done IRI and CowTown Throwdown. Unfortunately, there aren't many offseason events close to the Denver area.

[Jeremy Germita]

There are 4 offseason events within a ~6 hour drive of us. Here's our offseason history:

2013 - Pre-rookie season - Played with 399's robot
Fall Classic

2014 - Fielded 2 functionally different robots at Fall Classic and Battle at the Border.
Chezy Champs
Fall Classic(Days 1 and 2 are two separate events, attended both)
Battle at the Border

2015 - Fielded 1 robot at all events.
Chezy Champs
Battle at the Border
Madtown Throwdown(Played 2014 game, built an all new robot)

Offseason events are an important part of our fall schedule. We spend a lot of time iterating on the season robot in a far less stressful schedule so our students and mentors are ready for the build season. We have been very fortunate to have played with and against the best CA has to offer. These interactions with teams have been pivotal in the following build season.

Offseason events are fun, but I believe the real value in them shows when you set goals for you and your team's experience. Whether it be training your newer members and mentors for the rigors of competition season to just trying out a new robot mechanism, you should always try to make the most out of every offseason.

[Hitchhiker 42]

4557 attended two offseasons and we're planning to do one more in the fall.

• Battlecry@WPI 17 - May
• Where is Wolcott Invitational - June
• Bash at the Beach - September/October

I personally also volunteered at CT State Champs because I wanted to watch some more robots.

Battlecry we used to have fun and just let everyone drive. WIWI, though, we used to train next year's drive team, so who got to drive was a little more restricted.