How many off season events?

[Ringo5tarr]

I see that the Off Season board is very popular right now, and I understand why. But my team pretty much shuts down completely after school ends, aside from a couple of demonstrations and camps for sponsorship reasons, so if this board is so popular, how many events do you guys go to? 1764 only does one, CowTown throwdown, which takes place around halloween.

[niklas674]

Team 701 generally goes to two offseason events. This year we are going to Chezy Champs and Capital City Classic. Last year we did Capital City Classic and Cal Games. Overall going to two events gives anyone going for drive team a chance to somewhat experience what it will be like to be on drive team during competition seasons.

[Jay O'Donnell]

I believe 1058 is going to 6 in total this year, which is about their average. 229 is hoping to go to one in the fall.

In the end it comes down to your teams competitive philosophy and all of the logistics. 229 is mentored mostly by college students so the team doesn't meet or travel between the months of May and September. 1058 meets every week throughout the year so they have a very different situation. Not to mention how much location matters: New England is filled to the brink with offseason events, while NY has a smaller amount.

[Hikel team 319]

As Jay mentioned, the number of off-season events available to attend is largely based on location. 319 is lucky enough to be in New England where there are several off-season events. We use the events as recruitment tools and to aid in operator training.
319 will attend 6 off-season events, which includes hosting The Battle Of the Bay, on November 12. The final New England Stronghold event.
There are still open spaces. Your team can register here

http://www.frc319.com/#!register/c1dfy

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Jay O'Donnell

I believe 1058 is going to 6 in total this year, which is about their average. 229 is hoping to go to one in the fall.

In the end it comes down to your teams competitive philosophy and all of the logistics. 229 is mentored mostly by college students so the team doesn't meet or travel between the months of May and September. 1058 meets every week throughout the year so they have a very different situation. Not to mention how much location matters: New England is filled to the brink with offseason events, while NY has a smaller amount.

August & December are the only months up here we don't have competitions outside of the official season. Even then with 166 pulling double duty they host the official Week Zero Scrimmage in February so robot season really doesn't end there is always one more competition around the corner.

By the end of the year we will be pushing 150 matches but that's normal up here especially with teams like 125 and 195.

[ASD20]

My team has only attended the Beantown Blitz the past few years, though I'm pretty sure we've been registered for like 3.

(P.S. You might want to add a poll to this thread)

[Cothron Theiss]

Originally Posted by ASD20

(P.S. You might want to add a poll to this thread)

+1

[MARS_James]

Team 179 is going to be doing 4 offseasons this year. IRI, Panther Prowl, Roboticon, and Mission Mayhem.

[346CADmen]

346 is planning for 2 this year (IROC & Rumble in the Roads)
While we had an invite to IRI it just wasn't to be this year.

Last year was 3 as we traveled to NY for the Rah-Cha-Cha Ruckus, a terrific event.

Off season is a good way to go outside the district.

[Siri]

1640 varies by how much training needs to be done. The height of crazy was in in our post-Ultimate Ascent "We've gotta get back to Einstein!" delirium, where we did 7 off-seasons including IRI. We were already in the district system, which meant that the 2013 season included 11 events (22 days) in the 33 weeks between 2 March and 19 October. Meaning that, to achieve Einstein 2013 and train up for Einstein 2014, the team did the equivalent of a Saturday event every week and a half between the beginning of March and mid-October. This is not counting team volunteers; I did something like 13 FRC and 16 FIRST events that year, including the 2 FLL events the team hosted.

On one level it was fantastic to get that much practice, with students comparing it to standard athletics where games and scrimmages happen all the time in-season. On the other hand...phew.

[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.

[logank013]

Typically, our team goes to 4. We co-host IRI (with 45 and 1024) and we host IndyRAGE so we go to those usually. Then, we also try to go to CORI (didn't get to go this year due to competition capacity). And we usually end it with CAGE match at another nearby school. We only need to stay at hotels for CORI. All the other events are near enough to be less than a 45 minute drive.