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Lesson 1 - Pre-Season

The pre-season is the period from September to December where most of the subteams have individual projects and training to complete before Kickoff. As a scouting lead, this is the perfect time to pitch the subteam before everyone is set on building or programming the robot. If the opportunity arises to pitch the subteam, emphasize the importance of scouting - along with an excellent drive team and robot, it's one of the key components of winning a competition (see 2017 Mount Olive compared to 2016 Hatboro-Horsham).

Roles that could be fulfilled or trained (by veteran members) during the pre-season include:

  • Android app programming
    • Works with strategists to identify metrics that need to be built
    • Implements changes for the season and tests the app
    • Communicates with desktop client programmer to ensure data is read correctly
    • Explains how to use the app to scouts
  • Desktop client programming
    • Modifies the client to read data and aggregate data for the current game
    • Ensure the client outputs a readable CSV file and picklists
  • Game strategy (1+ year FIRST experience)
  • Scouting lead (2+ years experience on Team 25's scouting team)

Roles that will be fulfilled during the season include quantitative scouting and videography.

Try to identify who will do each task before kickoff. It's not easy having only one person lead the scouting team, and you'll probably be overwhelmed!

Also, set the expectations for the rest of the team. Everyone who is not on the drive team or the pit crew will be expected to scout, especially if they want to make the travel team.

Brunswick Eruption and offseason events

Offseason events are a great way to practice leading the team and fulfilling new roles for the upcoming season. It's probably better to retain the old scouting team unless numbers are lacking, as training accurate scouts takes a decent amount of time. Other than that, the scouting process remains the same as a regular competition. Just remember not to stress if something goes wrong; take note and ensure it doesn't happen when it really counts.

Of course, Team 25 does not have the resources to scout during Brunswick Eruption, as a majority of its members are working concessions, queueing, or taking part in the competition as pit crew and drive team. However, in the interest of making reasonable choices if we were alliance captain and practicing strategy, the scouting subteam drafts a picklist before Brunswick Eruption.

This is usually done by new game strategists under the guidance of old strategists to practice for the upcoming season. A pre-scouting spreadsheet should be filled out outlining each team's capabilities, while picklist decisions can be made through qualitative comparisons or stats-heavy methods, depending on the nature of the game. For example, Team 25 relied on their old scouting data and component OPRs for FIRST Steamworks to draft a picklist. Meanwhile the process for FIRST Power Up was very qualitative, involving video review, comparing teams based on their performance at other offseason events, and the capabilities of their robots.

On the day of Brunswick Eruption, one or two game strategists should work field reset and observe teams during matches, moving them up and down the picklist as necessary; there's no scientific process behind it. The new game strategist should then wear a Hawaiian shirt and represent the team for alliance selection, as long as they are trained properly. Selection should be strictly down the picklist and remain the same as the regular season, though deferring to the other representative for a second pick may be wise if their team actually scouted the event. Above all, treat Brunswick Eruption as another learning experience, the last one before the new season starts.

Registration

During September, ensure that all team members are on the team's Slack workspace. After all, it's how we communicate as a team, from general logistics to fundraisers. It's probably the easiest to write the bit.ly invite link on the board during meetings for several weeks in a row as interviews are going on.

In December, scouts should be "registering" to join the subteam via a Google Form, with a deadline of Kickoff. The shortlink to the form should be posted for several meetings and on Slack. While Slack makes it so you can already invite everyone to #scouting, registration is a formality that ensures people are committed to the scouting team. The form should have a brief explanation of what the subteam does and collect the following information:

  • Full name
  • Email address (rarely used)
  • Mobile number (store this into your contacts for emergencies)
  • (Tentative) event attendence
  • Scouting shift preferences (friends)
  • Direct communication preference (SMS/Slack/email)
  • Android scouting app testing survey question
  • Scout "standings" and identifier
  • Additional comments/suggestions

The scout "standings" were an open version of a scout's accumulated points (for scouting skill, game knowledge, and punctuality) as the build season progressed. This was closed to only scouting leads in 2017, but it was made open in 2018, with the option of using a random or scout-chosen identifier instead of the scout's name. While it has the downside of fostering competition and influencing the top-ranked scouts to slack off as they secured a travel spot, it also motivated those who didn't perform as well to do better. It's likely that the standings will stay for the 2019 season and beyond.

There's not much to be done other than setting up the standings before Kickoff, ensuring everyone joined #scouting, and managing your contacts. There's no need to create scouting rotations either, due to availability changing and people dropping from the scouting team over time.