Offseasons as your Regular Season?

[Alan Anderson]

Gosh, I'm turning into quite the curmudgeon lately. Even though what I have to say is laced with the word "you", try to take it as a general commentary on the concept, and not anything personal.

Originally Posted by Corey Balint

They are shorter, don’t require students to miss school, and are fun and far less stressful.

FRC isn't about having fun. It isn't about the robots. If you ignore the six-week build time restriction, if you dismiss the stress of official regional competition events, if you set aside the need to set priorities between robotics and study...then you lose a significant amount of what this is about.

If you go around the program and only attend offseason events, you don't just give up the opportunity to win official FIRST robot trophies and banners. You remove yourself from contention for the big award. You avoid full exposure to the core reason for FIRST's existence. You essentially announce that you care mostly about having fun.

Fun isn't bad. Other tech-based programs would likely welcome your participation. But by trying to participate in FRC-related events as a non-FIRST team, you don't contribute appropriately to the program, and I would not be inclined to grant you entry to any such events for which I had responsibility.