Our first invitational is in a few weeks

[Kokonilly]

Does everyone simply bring a weak tower, a basic instrument, a "kit" helicopter so that nobody steals your best ideas or realizes that they have to do even more to beat you at Regionals and State?

Not at all. We bring the best of what we have, and then stick it in a hand-crafted box (Towers) or cover it with a cloth (Mission) or stick it into a normal cardboard box (everything else).

[hscmom]

Thanks for the replies. The invitational we're going to has 12 teams (some schools have a couple of teams), and they are teams that historically do quite well (we're competing with the big boys). We're going to enter all the events, but keep a few things secret!

[Primate]

Does everyone simply bring a weak tower, a basic instrument, a "kit" helicopter so that nobody steals your best ideas or realizes that they have to do even more to beat you at Regionals and State?

Not at all. We bring the best of what we have, and then stick it in a hand-crafted box (Towers) or cover it with a cloth (Mission) or stick it into a normal cardboard box (everything else).

Are they not open events at the competitions you go to? We allow spectators for almost all building events--especially at invitationals--since it makes things so much more fun.

[Kokonilly]

Does everyone simply bring a weak tower, a basic instrument, a "kit" helicopter so that nobody steals your best ideas or realizes that they have to do even more to beat you at Regionals and State?

Not at all. We bring the best of what we have, and then stick it in a hand-crafted box (Towers) or cover it with a cloth (Mission) or stick it into a normal cardboard box (everything else).

Are they not open events at the competitions you go to? We allow spectators for almost all building events--especially at invitationals--since it makes things so much more fun.

We have spectators too (I think Mission is not as widely watched, though - I've never seen a Mission run at a competition... I dunno why) but it's not as enthusiastically watched as some would think. Most people with free time are holed up in the home room cramming. Our building events generally do fairly well, so we like to be secretive about them (we can't with so many spectators, but we try).

[hscmom]

Thought I'd write back on this thread. The invitational was yesterday. There were 13 teams from 9 different schools, including a couple of teams that have been to Nationals before (although one had been a few years ago so those aren't the same kids). Based on our coach's recommendation we brought a stripped down Mission Possible (still it got 2nd!!!) keeping the things we didn't want copied at home. Similarly, our Mousetrap Vehicle is currently giving us perfect runs, all the time, so we left it at home as we don't want our design copied. And our Sumobot was having real problems so we brought our old Robocross Vex with a horrible scoop taped to the front. Hey, at least we got participation points for that one.

We had a terrific time. Our C div. team has 10 full-time members and a pair of brothers who have never done SO joined us a few weeks ago to do helicopter (they are doing only helicopter but maybe next year will participate a little more). So, we were up to 12. But two kids, including one of our best team members, couldn't make it to invitational so we had five open slots. We that, instead of just having our C team kids go in to cover all events, we'd invite up some of our B team kids that have never been to a tournament before to fill our five empty slots. We saw the tournament as a learning experience.

The tournament coordinator is a fantastic guy. Really helpful. Arranged and coordinated things perfectly. Maybe we should have cloning as a trial event (C Div of course) and we could attempt to make more of him. Friendly, upbeat, helpful, knowledgeable and really out to make it a terrific tournament. ... Ooops, out of space, I'll post right below this...

[hscmom]

Me again...

The day went well. I really liked how there were just a few teams there. Usually our Regional and State both have about 60 teams because both B and C are there and it's chaos and crowded.

And I liked how the results of the tournament did not play into anything else. Nothing was riding on the results of invitational.

Well, we bombed WIDI (dead last) and did poorly in Disease, Dynamic Planet, and Remote Sensing. But then again, these are events covered mainly by the new kids who haven't competed before and/or B division kids. So, we'll work on them. But we got ten medals and ended up with a solid second place overall.

Thanks for all the hints. I am hoping we get invited again next year as it was a great learning experience.

[zyzzyva980]

Congratulations! Good luck at your next competition, whenever it may be.