Israeli Competitions are Back! | Golden Gears 2020 Offseason

Competition Off-Season Events
#1

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Steampunk 1577 is thrilled to announce that competitions in Israel are making a comeback!

After ISR#3, ISR#4 district events and the Israeli District Championship have all been cancelled,

Golden Gears put a goal to celebrate the end of the 2020 season in style!

Therefore we’ll hold 2 back-to-back events, with a grand finale -The Israeli Festival of Champions.

  • August 2nd-3rd - Golden Gears | Event 1

  • August 4th-5th - Golden Gears | Event 2

  • August 6th - Israeli Festival of Champions

Webcast will be available , you don’t want to miss it!

Although unfortunately this season we can’t open the registration for worldwide teams to join us,

We still want to share with you all the exciting moments of bringing back the competitions this season!

Hope to see you all in Golden Gears 2021 :gear: :wink:

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#2

Since I’m sure everyone is curious, what are you planning to use as the field, given FIRST not lending official fields for off-season events?

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#3

We got a full wooden field, for use of all Israeli teams. With a little more work, we believe it will be an appropriate alternative.
A robotics-league concept (2x2 matches), is starting later this month, and a few teams are already working to make the field competition-ready (credit to 1690 & 7039).
Also, together with 1690, we are working on integrating sensors to the field, to automate scoring.

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#4

Excited for this to happen. While this is not a near term reality in the states right now, I am delighted to hear that other countries are in a spot where this can become a reality. Could care less if it’s an official field or wood.

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#5

Looking forward to this! Hopefully I’ll be able to come and volunteer

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#6

Hope this all goes well. I’m glad to be seeing competitions again very soon!

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#7

This looks like just the thing we need to keep ourselves busy while waiting for next year, I can’t wait to see how it goes!

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#8

I am not an Israeli and am speaking from a place of ignorance, but I am surprised this is announced the same day that the government is wrestling with how many schools to re-close due to the virus? Is the event viability based on trust that high schoolers can maintain protocol better than younger students?

Curious to see how your orgs will manage volunteering & traffic flow at the events in a way that is compatible with public health. Hoping we can all learn good techniques and methods from your example.

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#9

@Tyler_Olds, @DJ_Roni and @ExultedOne
The least we can do is to share our excitement with you all.

I’m surprised the NBA decided to announce the return of the league the same day we publish the competition. Coincidence? I think not.

But now seriously, we are working on the event hand by hand with our city municipality, and of course it will stand with the health guidance.
(Btw, the government actually decided not to re-close schools a few days ago).

We’ll probably release volunteer registration tomorrow, hope you can make it to the event.

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#10

For about a month (from 5/3 to 5/27) Israel was below 50 new cases per day. Throughout that time life has more or less been returning to normal here. Most businesses and schools have reopened, following strict guidelines to minimize the spread of the virus. Colleges are back on campus; even bars and nightclubs are reopening, which I think most people see as being one of the last stages of return to normalcy. This past week we’ve had a small uptick, up to about 100 new cases per day. The reason it was considered to close schools is because a few of the outbreaks happened in schools, not because they’re overall tightening restrictions again. The overall state of the country is still pretty safe.

Of course, this could all change by next week let alone in a few months. I have no doubt that 1577 will be in close contact with the proper authorities to make sure the event is safe, and will cancel it if the situation gets bad enough.

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#11

Fair point :slight_smile:

Right, the Health Authority asked for all schools, and then the government said only the directly affected schools.

That is wonderful to know, very glad you all are finding ways to get back to normal.

All good & exciting news! I will definitely be looking to Israel for best practices now.

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