Our team is using motor encoders, and in a scrimmage from Starstruck we saw two advanced teams broke down because of static issues with the encoders resetting. We need to make a design for discharging the static back into the field so this will not happen this year during normal competition that doesn’t use static remover. Any design ideas that won’t dig into the foam field?
Try using Quad Encoders instead of the integrated encoders
…any chance my robot was the one breaking down during the starstruck scrimmage…? 
My team had problems with this but since we switched to Quads we haven’t had an issue
(EDIT: here’s the link to them on the VEX website Optical Shaft Encoder (2-pack) - VEX Robotics)
you were not the team at the scrimmage. Or maybe it was… Also, our robot doesn’t have room for quads.
Is there anyway you could run the quads on an idler gear offset from your gear train? (quads might be big and bulky but they’re one of the easier solutions)
Static is something we dealt with a lot and that’s the only consistent solution we have found.
The only other thing I know to help is anti-static spray on the fields (however its not used at every venue so you can’t depend on it in competition)
I heard from a team on Saturday’s competition that their robot got fried because of the field controls, but now that I think about it, the wire is connected to the controller, not the bot itself. The only way that would have happened is through the A-A cable.