Woohoo! It’s happening!
I stopped by the official Week 0 scrimmage event in Bedford, New Hampshire, USA, this past Saturday. Huge shout-out to FIRST Robotics Competition Team 509, Red Storm, for being such amazing hosts!
It was so exciting to see teams and robots back on the field! And it was really nice to catch up with some old friends. Those robots were looking good, too, with still a few weeks before official competitions start. I saw a super-clever climber and some multi-ball auto routines. The purpose of Week 0 is to test the equipment, the game, processes, etc. We learned some lessons (so we consider Week 0 a success!) and are really optimistic about the season!
As a bonus, we had about 10 FIRST Technical Advisors (FTAs) at the event to get some hands-on training with field assembly. You may not know that because of COVID concerns, FTA training in January was virtual. While some volunteer training is easy to conduct virtually, some is not, and I think FTA training falls into the ‘not’ bucket. While 10 FTAs represent a small percentage of our overall count, every little bit helps!
I hope everyone is having a great season so far and I can’t wait for official events to start in less than two weeks!
Frank