Has anyone thought of doing preliminary scouting before regionals but after stop build day by online methods such as email (e.g. Sending each team a general questionnaire about their robot and strategy and requesting a picture to get a heads up on how other teams are straragizing for the regionals and which teams to pay attention to
Interesting thought. However, we all know that asking questions to teams in the pit is already pretty unreliable - asking them to answer questions about their abilities before even setting foot at a competition will surely result in some…optimistic answers 
Another question: have teams considered going (or gone) to nearby regional before their own to scout the teams that are there who will also be at the regional they are competing in?
One year our team went to the DC regional to cheer on 1885 as we had decided to go to VCU instead of DC that year and it worked out that the DC event was an earlier week than VCU. From a scouting standpoint, watching the elimination rounds of an earlier event can help you. Just don’t forget that the metagame does evolve as teams use their withholding allowances and make modifications, especially if they are competing at more than one event. If you have the opportunity to go spectate before you compete I certainly think its worth it, if you can’t watch webstreams.
This year DC is before VCU again so I’ll probably make the trek up to DC to watch on Saturday.
Teams in Michigan do that a lot since we play with and against each other quite often. Teams not playing in Week One usually go to a Week One district event to see what’s going on. It is also a great opportunity to socialize with other teams, some you have not seen since end of last season.
I completely agree with this. Going to other regionals the week before you go to your own is EXTREMELY helpful and I would suggest it to anyone that has the chance. Although it is a lot easier for Michigan teams since the districts are all over the place. Personally I go to Kettering’s FiM tournament in week 1 every year.
For us, the nearest Week One event is a several hour drive to San Diego…but it may be worth it, will have to see if I can get a dedicated group together 
If not, watching webcasts will still be somewhat useful purely from a game-understanding standpoint.
We almost never go around to every team and have them fill out or help us fill out a questionnaire. We still talk to other teams, but our scouting is primarily match scouting. The most important qualities to consider when scouting are shown in matches themselves. So what if they shot with 80% accuracy when they were testing right before ship? That doesn’t mean they will be able to effectively pick up balls and shoot them while dealing with interference from other teams. As David said, “asking them to answer questions about their abilities before even setting foot at a competition will surely result in some…optimistic answers.”
Additionally, this year we’re considering visiting the Central Valley Regional for week 1 before Sacramento and Silicon Valley weeks 4 and 6. Many of those teams will be at one of our regionals, and it’ll give us a better sense of the game that’ll help with our pre-regional work.
Ed, I assume we will see you at Kettering?
Kettering does have a tendency to have quite a few teams show up on Saturday that are not actually competing in the event. (ie. 27, 67, 217, 1718, 2834)
But then again, I have a tendency to go to a Michigan event every weekend just to check out the competition and robots.
-Clinton-
I think this is one of the benefits of districts; it happens in MAR, too. I hope it’s also common in places with nearby regionals (though there may be less team overlap than in districts?) It’s probably the more helpful thing a late-playing team can do for itself.
I love the concept of pre-regional scouting. While getting estimates of performance may not be effective, getting a sense of what role a team plans on playing and how they are attempting to accomplish that is very useful.
Looking for things like these can be helpful in presorting your picklists:
-Desired starting position in autonomous
-Specific description of their autonomous routine(s).
-Drivetrain specs (types of wheels, gearing)
-Desired role
-manipulator specs
Using these you can sort teams into the roles they will be playing in an alliance, and work out how they fit into your strategies prior to your regional and then you can adjust for actual performance when you are there.
If you were to take this approach you could perhaps offer to share the information you collect with the teams that provide their specs/ pictures. That way you benefit by getting the information you want and build a working relationship with the teams at you region, and they benefit by potentially building interest in their robot and receiving useful information.