How do regional events work?

Competition Regional Competitions
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Is everything you need to know about regional events in the game manual? I see people talking about FTA, inspections, timeouts, refs, judges, volunteers, and so many other things that I don’t fully understand. Where can I go to learn more about the intricacies of events? Besides what is in the game manual, what does a member of the pit crew / drive team need to know before the competition?

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I feel like I’m the only one who doesn’t know this stuff.

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Some of it is manual (namely, most of the things you specifically list can be found in Sections 10 and 11 of the manual), and some of it is being at events for a few years (after an event or two you realize pretty quickly that having a checklist of things to prep the bot before and after a match is important).

Obviously you dont know what you dont know, but do you have anything specific that you are confused on or want more information on?

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For a description of what some of those volunteer positions do at events, check out the key volunteer role descriptions

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I mean, is there anything that isn’t in the game manual that you think (new) members of the drive team need to know? Or any tips you’d give?

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From the perspective of rules, you should also be aware of (and someone on your team should have read):

I encourage you to reach out to local teams for support. Check out who else is going to the same competition.. Many team mentors have experience as a Robot Inspector and would be glad to give your robot the once-over to avoid nasty surprises.

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  • Get inspected early.
  • Get as many practice matches as you can. The “Filler Line” is your friend here (look it up in the manual, be sure to ask the HR if the event has it)
  • Queue for your matches as early as you can.
  • Always have fresh batteries (and a way to check their charge)
  • Talk to your alliance partners early (before queueing preferably) to have a match strategy
  • Have a checklist that drive team or the pit crew (if you have one) to check if the robot is ready for the next match (in starting position, fresh battery, correct bumpers) and a checklist post match (check for damage, put stuff like the climber back into its correct spot, removing the battery and putting it on a charger).
  • Drive teams should know how Timeout and backup coupon rules work for elims. This has been a sore spot for many teams this year, and you dont want to join in on that if at all possible. It also very recently changed, so its worth knowing it even more.
  • If your bot ever has to miss a match, you still need a drive team member in the driver station. it will be a red card otherwise. With that, your Drive Team should be keenly aware of what gets fould/cards.
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The most important things to know in my opinion:

tl/dr: Read the manual a bit, but the best resource is going to be volunteers and other teams. Try to make friends with the teams around your pit so you can ask questions if you need to. Even as an experienced FRC Alumni, having some friends to ask questions to is invaluable. Everyone is very nice at FRC competitions, don’t worry :wink:

Wednesday

  • Wednesday night is usually the time to load in your robot and all of your pit supplies. Try to get everything in and set up that night so you don’t have to deal with it on Thursday

Thursday

  • Thursday is practice day. The most important thing to do on Thursday is getting your robot inspected. If you aren’t familiar, inspection is the process of a robot inspector ensuring that your robot is legal to play in the competition. They have a checklist that they will fill out with the kids. They usually have yellow vests on and are all over the place on Thursday. If you ask them they can walk you through the process.
  • The second most important thing to do on Thursday is practice. There will be scheduled practice matches all day. These matches hold no competitive value but run just like an actual match. They are EXTREMELY VALUABLE. If you have a working robot, you should try to attend the ones you are scheduled for. You don’t even need to be inspected to participate. You get the schedule at the beginning of the day.
  • You do have to get inspected to “fill-in”. Not all teams are ready for their practice matches on Thursday, so sometimes matches are run with less than 6 teams. If you are inspected you can get in line to fill-in for missing robots. The advantage of this is getting more practice.
  • There are also a few meetings that some students will need to attend. Things like Driver Meeting, and Safety meeting. I am pretty sure they are on Thursday, but they could be Friday too. I feel dumb that I can’t remember.

Friday

  • COMPETITION TIME. If you have completed inspection, you will now be able to compete in qualification matches. These matches matter and are the competition. You will get a schedule at the beginning of the day. You will likely have 9-11ish matches depending on the size of the event.
  • You will hear teams being “queued” for matches. If your number is called, you must make your way over to the queuing area to stand in line for a few matches. They like to queue a few matches ahead to make sure all matches have all robots and run efficiently.

Saturday

  • Half the day will be the rest of the qualification matches, followed by alliance selection, followed by elimination matches. Alliance selection is complicated, I recommend reading about it in the manual and asking questions at the competition if you have questions.
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This is good advice. A lot of teams who still have work to do on their robot will put off inspection until they are sure everything is ready. Early inspection might reveal a problem that can be worked on in parallel, or it could give RIs a chance to confer about something unusual. Remember that inspection can be done in chunks, and that the Robot Inspector is there to help you get onto the field.

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If you don’t pass inspection, are you able to fix your robot and get inspected again?

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Absolutely. There is no penalty for that. Re-inspections can be very quick.

ETA: Don’t think of it as “failing inspection”, but rather as “not having completed inspection yet”. You’re just making progress towards having everything on the checklist marked off.

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Even if you don’t get inspected early make sure you weigh you robot i know some people don’t have proper scales. It’s hard to take stuff off if you are over weight. Also most important is use only approved motors. These 2 things will be troublesome if not addressed early.

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You’ll be what we call “partially inspected”. Some (hopefully most) of the items on the checklist will be checked off, and you’ll be told exactly what needs to be fixed to pass completely. You can ask as many times as you need to complete inspection.

If there are issues with a subsystem (i.e. pneumatics), that system can be disabled (i.e. by unplugging the compressor) to pass and can be reenabled after the issues with it are fixed and the subsystem is reinspected.

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Hey @thelme, I’ll be at 10,000 Lakes with you next week! Come find me at the field if you have questions and want to chat :slight_smile:

Thursday morning there will be a driver’s meeting on the field - be sure to have your drive team there! Many of the key volunteers will give share important information about the key areas of the event (inspection, queuing, referreeing, etc.) and you’ll have time to ask questions. Feel free to stick around the field afterwards to ask more questions as well - the field will also be open for measurement and robot calibration (if you have cameras you need to adjust for example) after the driver’s meeting. I love talking with teams during the measurement/calibration period (okay, I like talking to teams all the time, but this is a great low-stress time to chat)!

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A couple of things no-one has mentioned:

Judges (blue shirts) will come by your pit on competition day to talk to whoever is around. Try to make sure you leave someone knowledgeable (a “judge talker”) in the pit at all times; senior-freshman pairs work well. Prepare a short written description of your robot and your team (the “judge packet”) and leave it in your pit so that anyone on the team can speak consistently and authoritatively. If judges arrive at a bad moment, don’t be afraid to ask them to come back later. If the judge asks a question and you don’t know the answer then say so; never give an answer that might be wrong. Kick mentors and extra students out of the pit when judges are there.

You should appoint a Safety Captain. They are expected to attend daily meetings, and will be interviewed by Safety Managers (red vests). Here are some tips to get started as Safety Captain

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Also make sure to check out the “Event Experience” page. I think a lot of the things you’re looking to figure out are in the “What to Expect” section.

(Do be aware that things are slightly different at different events. That page says that teams in the first four matches queue prior to Opening Ceremony, but some events don’t even have 24 teams. Usually it’s just the first match or two that need to queue to at the district events I’ve been to, but regionals may be bigger.)

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Here’s a brief that might help:
EventWhosWhoCribSheet.pdf (211.9 KB)

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Came here to say this. This is a surprisingly helpful resource, including the typical schedule of events.

I also want to highlight this section of the page, which is information that everyone attending events should know:

Who do I ask for…?
Teams may have questions at an event. This section covers who a team may go to when they need help.

Robot Control System-related issues? Control Systems Advisors (CSAs) can assist and typically can be found in the pits or by the field and wear bright orange hats.
Inspection Questions? Robot Inspectors can assist! They typically can be found in the pits and wear bright yellow hats. If you have a question an inspector cannot answer, be sure to ask for the Lead Robot Inspector. They wear a yellow hat and a black vest.
Other questions in the Pit? Start with Pit Admin who can be found at the Pit Admin Station. They typically know the answers or can help track down the correct person.
Field related questions? Have a member of the drive team (pre-college student) talk to the FIRST Technical Advisor (FTA) or the Head Ref.

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I agree with all above. A lot of the nuts and bolts aren’t in the rules. Here are some key things picked up over the years:

  1. Load-in. For multi-day events, there is usually a load-in the evening before pits open, and another load-in period early in the morning before pits open. You can only do one. Move stuff in, set up your pit. No work on the robot or robot parts. Bring in your robot and all of your pre-manufactured non-COTS robot parts (spares and upgrades) during your load-in - not as closely watched as the bag days, but it avoids any perception that you were working on your robot during the event outside of the pit (and pit hours).
  1. field personnel
  • MOC (Master of Ceremonies) - These people do team introductions on the field, Introduce VIPs, coordinate alliance selection, and keep things interesting even during long field timeouts. They’re incredibly important in terms of presentation of FIRST to the public. Many teams ignore them, but a few lean into this, and induce the MoC (e.g through signs behind the glass) to help lead their cheers or otherwise contribute to the event.
  • Head referee wears a yellow and black pit racing crew uniform, leading to the nickname “bumblebee”. Makes most of the final decisions about what happens on the field, including scoring, penalties, disqualification. Other referees (four on the field at any time watching quadrants of the field, plus a spare or two to rotate) wear classic referee “zebra” shirts, horizontal black and white stripes, and they call fouls and help with scoring.
  • FTA: Field Technical Advisor. Read the shirt (dark shirt with big bold white letters). Keeps the field electronics going. The person to call if you can’t connect before a match, or if you notice mis-scoring on automated systems.
  • Queuers: Help guide team onto and off of the field, tell pit admin who should be queuing, and do spare bits of coordinating with the drive team. There’s usually one lead and four subs, two for the red side and two for blue.
  • Field Supervisor and Field Reset: they reset the field between events, including fixing field damage and do most of the “returning CARGO to the field” during matches. They also collect flags from the MOC.
  1. Pit personnel
  • CSA: Control System Advisor. They wear fluorescent orange ball caps. While they do spend time in the arena, they mostly help teams figure out control issues in the pits.
  • Robot Inspectors: RIs wear highlighter yellow ball caps. The LRI (Lead RI) also wears a black vest with more pockets than most magicians’ suits. Their job is to get you through inspection by the end of practice day, and before your first match if in any way possible. The LRI is actually on the field more than in the pits after matches start, looking for issues to help teams.
  • Pit Admin: A desk in the pits, usually at the corner or side nearest the ARENA. They make announcements of who’s queueing and everything else, and they are the starting point for questions which aren’t obviously for one of the other pit or field volunteers. If you need parts or help that aren’t clearly for the RIs or CSAs, ask them to make an announcement. Joke or gag announcements (e.g. pneumatic fluid or a sonic screwdriver) are an FRC tradition, but please don’t do more than one of these per team per day.
  • Spare Parts: Usually near pit admin. They have spare parts. If it’s a standard FRC part, check with them before going to pit admin.
  1. First day (of 3 day events): radio programming, inspection, practice matches, final tuning. Get in as many practice matches as you can. At LEAST do one so that you work through connection issues! You don’t need a full inspection to participate in SCHEDULED practice matches, but you do need to have your radio programmed for the event, and you need functional bumpers. (No numbers, wrong color OK. Just something that the field staff (in particular head referee) deems safe to drive around the field. This should be your #1 priority.
  2. Days 2 and three are competition. I don’t have enough time to do more than say “read the competition rules, and the timeout rules”.

I have to head to Bayou Load-In shortly (advanced an hour due to high winds expected this evening)., so I’ll leave it there, knowing that I’ll think of more later.

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@thelme

I mentor the Hopkins team next door to you. DM me and let’s find a time for students on our two teams to talk and go over what to expect.

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Yes. Do this first. Send one person (who knows your team number!) with your radio to the WPA Kiosk, which may be at the inspection desk or with Pit Admin. It doesn’t take long and you can’t do anything with your robot at an event (inspection, practice matches, use the practice field) until you have done this.

Teams that wait until their first qualification match to connect to the field for the first time will experience connection issues. If you miss all of your practice matches, please tell a CSA that you need a “field connection test” before the end of practice day.

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