How to play the most matches in 2023

One of the first (and favorite) posts I saw on Chief Delphi was this post from last year by @jtrv , and 2023 event preferencing opened up so now we gotta answer this question again (2023 version): What is the most (qualification) matches a team could hypothetically play in 2023?

We’re going to assume that districts will let us play in their event even though we aren’t in their district and that money isn’t a problem.

  1. Compete at ISR District Event #1 from February 26th to February 28th
  • Wait a few days
  1. Compete at ISR District Event #2 from March 1st to March 3rd
  • March 4th get on Flight EK932 at 18:25 from TLV to DXB arriving at 23:25
  • March 5th layover for 2H 35M then flight EK414 at 2:00 from DXB to SYD arriving at 22:30
  • Chill for a few days in Australia
  1. Compete at South Cross Regional from March 8th to 11th (dates tentative)
  • March 11th get on Flight EK413 at 21:45 from SYD to DXB arriving at 5:15
  • March 12th layover for 3H then get on flight EK933 at 8:15 from DXB to TLV arriving at 9:50
  1. Compete at ISR District Event #3 from March 12th to March 14th
  • Stay overnight
  1. Compete at ISR District Event #4 from March 15h to March 17th
  • March 17th get on Flight DL235 at 22:10 from TLV to JFK arriving at 5:30
  1. Compete at Long Island Regional #1 from March 20th to March 22nd
  • Stay overnight
  1. Compete at Long Island Regional #2 from March 23rd to March 25th
  • March 25th get on flight LH405 at 23:10 from JFK to IST arriving at 21:15
  1. Compete at Bosphorus Regional from March 27th to March 29th
  • March 29th get on Flight QR246 at 19:45 from IST to DOH arriving at 23:45
  • March 30th Layover for 1H 50M then Flight QR723 at 1:35 from DOH to ORD arriving at 8:35
  • March 30th Layover for 3H 10M then Flight AA3619 at 11:45 from ORD to IND arriving at 1:52
  1. Compete at FIN District Greenwood Event from March 30th to April 1st
  • Drive from Greenwood Indiana to Huntsville Alabama
  1. Compete at Rocket City Regional from April 5th to April 8th
  • Drive from Huntsville Alabama to Houston Texas
  1. Compete at FIRST Championship from April 19th to April 22rd

In total a team could play 113 qual matches plus 10 from champs so 123 qual matches. (12+12+13+12+12+12+10+8+12+10+10 =123)

There were many events I tried fitting in between events but it would overlap just by a little bit. Israel having district events back to back helped a lot but I decided not to go to Israel district champs because the long island regional would end a day earlier than Israel district champs and being back in the states made it easier going to another event. Logistics would be crazy and as a junior in highschool I don’t know how I would keep up with homework. Let me know if there’s any mistakes or ways to play more matches because I might update this but it’s not like anyone would actually try to pull this off lol :slight_smile:

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Great in theory. A step toward practice might begin with drafting a team budget to support this itinerary, to get an idea of $/match.

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I think this is @jaredhk 's actual itinerary for this year.

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Not in my old age! I think I’m gonna be capping out at ~two offseasons, ~four regionals, champs, and a few non-FRC FIRST events. I’ve played the six regional game a few too many times. Now I’m retiring.

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Our maxed out regional season would be Arkansas, St. Louis, Heartland, Central Mo, Greater KC, and Green Country.

83 qual matches.

Cost for ~20 students & 8 mentors
Reg $6k + 5x$3k = $21k

Travel distance 2000 miles total x 5 school vehicles * $0.625 per mile = ~$6k (gas and vehicle gratis)

Minimal hotel stays: 3 nights at ARLI & MOSL, 2 nights at MOSE & OKTU, 0 nights at others = 10 nights @ $1.5k/night = $15k

Team meals for 18 days (36 meals minus breakfast). Varies but @$5/meal (sandwich/chips) ~$5k.

Total including in-kind $47k, or $566/match

edit: Or ~$28/student/match.

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I haven’t look into how you would actually get between these events but you could to the following events:
ISR 1 (2/26 - 2/28), ISR 2 (3/1-3/3), Glacier Peak (3/3 - 3/5)
Wilsonville (3/9 (load in) - 3/11), ISR 3 (3/12 - 3/14)
ISR 4 (3/15 - 3/17), Bonney Lake (3/17 - 3/19)
ISR District Champs (3/20 - 3/23), Oregon State Fairgrounds (3/23 - 3/25)
Bosphorus (3/27 - 3/29), Auburn (3/31 - 4/2)
PNW District Champs (4/5 - 4/8)
Worlds (4/19 - 4/22)

(I am fairly certain the first day of the PNW events is likely load in)
This event schedule would mean a team that did this would attend 13 events

$566/match is actually… way more reasonable than I was expecting.

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So this is funny, I checked our 2022 season which was 2 regionals where we played 30 matches (including elims). And we spent approx. $17k, including everything except for in-kind donations. The math comes out to $566 per match. That was a surprise.

I’m not sure where that would actually end up, because I didn’t add robot material costs. I also think you’d have a couple less quals matches this year between those events. But this has 0 playoff matches, and I’d expect you’d get maybe 10-25 more matches that way. Going off our 2022 record it was 20% of the matches, so you’d have about 104 total matches.

There were some hard choices in the above calculation like not showing up until practice day morning to save a couple of hotel nights and also driving home after events. Since these are close by, there are no flights to worry about. It is also a little unclear how food and driving costs would be, and some would be in-kind donations not considered in the above calculation also.

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It’s kind of horrifying how inexpensive you make this look… or how inexpensive it actually is…

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I would find it interesting to see other sides of the spectrum. Admittedly, hotels are much cheaper in Shawnee, Oklahoma, than Chicago, Illinois, or San Francisco, California. Likewise, the amount spent on robots and tools vastly differ. Being able to drive to events is another savings, and especially when you have a school willing to let you take fleet vehicles for robotics events. Lastly, food choices and how different teams handle their meals. We order pizza to have at the hotel usually at least once, and that is usually a pretty cheap option. Added with the make your own sandwiches at lunch. And continental breakfast at the hotel. Not that we don’t stray from that, but when we do usually it is a donated meal from parents, mentors, etc. Or possibly pick up your own meal (we have mostly gotten away from that).

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