Stuff To Do During Long Downtimes at NJ Regional?

[SU 39]

NO! this ...is...jersey?


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Unfortunately I'm not familiar with the region but I'd suggest a smallish (10 max) group pit scouting and the rest just bonding unless you find somewhere else to go.

[amariealbrecht]

haha free time...im not sure about that but if you do run into some free time do as the robettes do and "robo bond"...its a classic to getting know teams and making friends and learning more about the program!

[flyingcrayons]

well this certainly is not the jersey i know... i went last year, and i barely sat down... there was always something to do there... if you really don't have anything to do, cheer on the comppetition, or go to the pits (in small groupd tho, not that much space), or go meet other teams... we definitely love when people come around asking for buttins... i know hackey sacks will probably make an appearance this year, go see if a team happens to be giving them away... there's always down time , but not long periods as suggested by the title... and you probably shouldn't leave the venue, especialy if you don;t know where you are going... trenton is not that bad, but you certainly don't want to get lost there... especially near the SBA, not the best part of town...

[nuggetsyl]

sleep

[Brandon_L]

Bring a Zune and watch movies (zune's pwn Ipod's in the video realm.)

[cloud_254]

i'm in cali but it seem like the only free tiem we get is after we leave the comp.

[Liz Smith]

As an individual watch some matches, go through the pits, talk to teams, and check out some of the other robots. There are 60+ other teams that have spent 6 weeks putting their effort into their machines and more time into their team... they will be more than happy to tell you about it. Besides talking to people on other teams, talk to volunteers as well. There are some really cool people at the NJ regional, getting to know them is an awesome opportunity to have. FIRST competitions are great places to "network".

As a team with downtime.. I never have seen a team that doesn't have anything to do. People have suggested scouting and things. Look to see if you couldn't improve your strategy on the field or tweak your robot before your next match. If, as a team, you find you have nothing to do you must be very successful. Perhaps you could offer assistance to other teams who may be struggling to do things like pass inspection or fix their robot.

After the competition day is over, food and sleep are the only things my team has ever had time for. (That and video games in the hotel)

[Aren_Hill]

Or do like we did in colorado and find a bunch of team titanium's balsa wood planes and put them together till you've got a 4ft wingspan thing....then fly it from the top of the stands.

this was thursday after matches were done, the atmosphere at colorado last year thursday was awesome, laid back and everything it was weird yet really enjoyable.

[FRC1672]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

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

Don explains this best.

Rather if your a freshman and play little role.. Ie non driver mechanic or anything hands on(not likely), you can mingle.

As everyone has said document mingle but most fun is to watch other games and learn about other robots. This can help your team by scouting and every competition is fun. Even if your game is playing there are exciting things offered everywhere.

1672 Mahwah Robo-Tbirds & 1676 Pascack PIoneers have a 'bond'. We had little downtime but some of our members found time to play duck duck goose and other things. It really depends on what you like to do.