As a student, I sometimes find myself with nothing to do during competitions. Like my teams finished our robot to the best of our abilities and we cant practice as the fields have matches going on. What should I do to entertain myself?
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i like to bring my phone or fix problems its not hard or talk with teammates
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start building ties with other teams you may want to allies with during alliance selections and talk to other teams you’ll be allying with in normal comps.
one of the biggest things ive learned as being both a competitor at one point and now a coach is that knowing other people from other teams that go to different schools is so big in the grand schemes of things.
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scout and talk to teams
dont be bored either rest or be competing and improving robot or eating or being semi social with other teams. this will help allot when you get to state and you want relations with other teams so you can get picked
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when you try and make a long post but vex forums deletes is
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analyze ways to improve your robot based on your performance in the comp.
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Bring your computer or a piece of paper and make an entry for your Engineering notebook based on the competition.
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If you are not doing anything productive, offer to do field resets - it will give a close look at a lot of robots and make the EP very happy.
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Scouting is huge. I find myself with way less time than I’d like to either gather or analyze data. I’ve never actually gotten one of my shouting sheets filled out completely.
Though I understand scouting isn’t exactly fun, it offers a chance to be sociable and get your team number out there. Talking to teams in their pit also provides a good look at their robot, and you can see that sometimes they solved a problem in a different way than you, and that can start a conversation.
With 16 alliances, most teams deserving to be In eliminations will make it, but most of the time higher seeded teams have plans going in. I know I have a multitude of plans (which I’m often left to make looking at data while waiting for selection to start if I have time after talking to people), and I have been part of many plans.
But you never know what will happen. Sometimes a good team seeds low due to schedule and the only way to know that is by scouting or just knowing people. (I had my eye on a low-ranked team at my most recent event I ended up picking, and we eventually lost to the winning alliance by 1 point, for example.)
Or maybe you’ll be in that position where you need to be pulled up for elims. (I can thank my A team for picking me once, who I (objectively) carried to Finals (but it was nice to work with them for a change), and that was before I really had enough time to scout (it was most of my team’s first comp, so they got more efficient later).)
Anyway, there’s always something to do, whether or not it’s “fun” per se.
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On a small team (4 people) as the driver and the coder, I am constantly running around, however, I make sure before every competition that I have Minecraft on my laptop for… research purposes.
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minecraft research is necessary although i prefer astroneer for research purposes
Play bingo
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This is hilarious! I am totally stealing this and slipping it into student’s toolboxes. Or even better I should put it out on all of the pit tables at the next event I host and give out prizes to the first few BINGO’s.
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*literally every event partner and volunteer, trying to run a tournament
NegativeSpace: plays robotics bingo in the back, with “tournament running behind schedule” as the free space
this is really good! I’m literally driving to a comp right now, so I’ll be sure to try it!
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Start building next years robot
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It has came out? The game?
No
I am a joker, a jester if you will
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Talk or discuss you to alliance with for elimination rounds.
Depending on the team, slip into their members and take a few flaps, they are a literal economy in our area