Stuff To Do During Long Downtimes at NJ Regional?

[GillRobotics]

Got any ideas?

[smurfgirl]

Free time at a Regional? No way...

[thefro526]

You won't have much downtime.

If you do - then it's cool to mingle with other teams, find cool handouts, eat, nap, or whatever your heart desires. As far as leaving, there's really not much around there to do. There's a little store about half a block away and that's about it.

[Akash Rastogi]

Chillin with thefro? hehe

[Andrew Schreiber]

Downtime at a regional? I always thought you east coast people were a little odd.

If you do have downtime (through say, a field error like at the Rookie Regional) Pick up a camera and document the experience. No matter what anyone tells you you can NEVER have too many pictures. 4 years from now your team may want documentation for a potential sponsor or something and it is better to have pictures. Besides, memory is cheap now. Aside from that, make some friends. FIRST is a pretty social place.

[Danny McC]

Hmmm hang with the awesomeness that is 816 and play some hacky sack with some of the best in the school. Not including me I suck now. But Matt and Steve are awesome. But everyone knows my suggestion for competition downtime is always hacky sack.

[Alexa Stott]

Whatever you do, I would not suggest wandering around that area of Trenton. It's not the best place to be in the city, especially when you're not familiar with the area.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by GillRobotics

Got any ideas?

I'm from the east coast. What is this "downtime" concept of which you speak, in 4 NJ regionals I have never had such an experience...

Um, check out the other robots, make friends, figure out what that big iron thingus in front of the arena was used for...

Don

[,4lex S.]

Down time does happen... We will be attending our first NJ regional and have no real idea of what to do with the majority of the team. We are a big team, so we have a core group that we normally send ahead to get the robot ready. Our mentors are looking for something for everybody else to do on the Thursday.

Seeing as how we don't have much experience with the region, does anyone have any advice for entertaining ~20 people (on a budget too, :/ )???

[Mrashes]

go to new york!

[guakam0li1089]

tell them to cheer to win the spirit award. even if your robot isn't on the field.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by ,4lex S.

Down time does happen... We will be attending our first NJ regional and have no real idea of what to do with the majority of the team. We are a big team, so we have a core group that we normally send ahead to get the robot ready. Our mentors are looking for something for everybody else to do on the Thursday.

Seeing as how we don't have much experience with the region, does anyone have any advice for entertaining ~20 people (on a budget too, :/ )???

3 words.
Scouting, scouting, & scouting.
More specifially, pit scouting of the robots you wil be competing with the next few days on Thursday is your best bet.
Match scouting is more important on Friday & Saturday when actual matches are run.

Or, just chill in the pits & stands & start socializing with teams & making friends - ones that can give you some local advice as to what to do for entertainment at night while you are there. (Besides team meetings & dinner that is.)
It's not just about robots you know.

I'll reiterate what Alexa said as well. Trenton is not a regional you want to go wandering outside off the grounds of the arena for ANY reason at all.
The neighborhood is a bit sketchy.
Stay in the arena, & enjoy the atmosphere there until it is time for your team to leave for the day.

[Akash Rastogi]

Note to large teams about pits, try to keep your numbe rof members in the pits to a minimum if you can. It gets crowded. =/

[,4lex S.]

Our experience with other regionals has always been that most teams do not have full function on Thursday (at least where we are from...), so I am not so sure about Thursday scouting. The thing is, we don't want to crowd the pit and our grade 9's probably aren't interested in scouting all day (I already made the suggestion, and our mentors said it wasn't a viable solution). Is Philly any good??? I think we have a bus. Our team will be well represented though, at least 15 of us should be there on the thursday.

You crazy east coasters have free time? This is Madness!