Yesterday, I had the privilege of helping out at the new Oregon VRC event at Sandy High School. Fifteen teams from Washington and Oregon participated, including nine brand-new Oregonian teams. Only three of the teams at the even participated in VRC last year, so the event was mostly rookies. This event was completely put on by volunteers from Sandy, including students who did all the scorekeeping, crystal management, queuing and setup. You wouldn’t have known that everyone was new to VEX, though, as the event ran smoothly and finished ON TIME! (OK, we had to run one semifinal match three times because of various problems, but I don’t think I’ve ever been to a tournament of any kind – from VRC to FTC to FRC – that didn’t have at least one problem in Eliminations. 
Did I mention that we finished on time?)
Start your own event. All it takes is 12 teams from four or more schools, a field, and some helpers. I like the excitement of the big 30+ team tournaments, but I’ve become a big fan of smaller events, too. With the field, the crowd, and the pits all in the same gym it’s more like hanging out with friends doing robots than a large event that tends to get scattered all over a venue.
My congratulations to Mr. Tisch and his team for putting on a great event. I have some video that I will put up on YouTube later today, and I’d like to thank the volunteers who shot the video, too.