[FRC Blog] FIRST Robotics Competition Registration Update

[Anupam Goli]

Also, we have a request. Please do not use bots to attempt to register for your events. While we don’t know for certain, as we said above, that the volume of activity caused the crash last week, we identified several specific teams that were clearly attempting to access the system at a rate higher than a human being sitting at a keyboard could. We were able to identify these specific teams through their IP addresses and the fact that teams must be logged in to the system to register. We had considered building a CAPTCHA speed bump into the process for next week, but recognized that would compromise the experience for all users in an attempt to prevent a handful of teams from adding burden to the system. We will be monitoring registration attempts starting just before event registration opens, and we may be blocking activity from individual teams that are obviously using bots, but we really do not want to take that action, so we are asking: Please don’t use bots. (Yes, we recognize the irony of this request!)

Dang, I hate to pull out the GP card, but really? It's frustrating not getting into a preferred event, but that doesn't excuse trying to cheat the system. Wait in line like the rest of us do.