The four days before game reveal are free money. Use them right and your team shows up to kickoff ready to work instead of ready to panic.
Kickoff week starts with the reveal — but the teams that gain a week of advantage set up everything before Friday. None of this requires knowing the game. All of it pays off regardless of what the game turns out to be.
⚠️
Two dates to remember: the game name and trailer drop Friday at Worlds closing ceremonies. The Game Manual doesn't release until Monday. Strategy work waits for Monday. Prep work is this week.
The Four-Day Prep Checklist
DAY −4 · WEDNESDAYPOST-MORTEM + ROLES
Last-season post-mortem 90 min. Three questions: what broke most, what did we build and never use, what did we wish we had. Log in old notebook Appendix.
Finalize role assignments Driver / Engineer / Strategist for the new season. If seniors graduated, someone is moving up. Have the conversation now.
DAY −3 · THURSDAYTOOLS + LAPTOPS
Parts & tool audit Inventory motors, pneumatics, sensors, structure. Flag broken. Update parts spreadsheet. Takes one afternoon now vs. a week during kickoff. Tools guide →
DAY −2 · FRIDAY (REVEAL DAY)DRIVER DRILLS + DRIVE SETUP
Driver conditioning One hour minimum on last year's field. Cycle time, precision, match awareness transfer regardless of game. Driver practice →
New-season Drive folders Empty containers: notebook, CAD, code repo branch, scouting sheet. 20 minutes. Students need "where does this go" before they have things.
That evening: watch the reveal together. Order pizza. Don't analyze during the stream. Write down first impressions individually, share after. Unfiltered reactions lose value within 48 hours.
DAY −1 · WEEKENDALIGN + READ META RULES
Saturday morning: field sketch session Sketch the field from memory, share mental models. Decide nothing. Goal is alignment, not strategy. Teams that skip this build to different mental pictures for weeks.
Re-read last season's meta rules Sections that don't change: G-rules (robot size), R-rules (motors/sensors), judging criteria, RECF policies (EN4, G4). Makes Monday's reading twice as fast.
What NOT to Do This Week
❌Do not speculate publicly about strategy before the manual drops. “I think Override will reward fast cycles” ages poorly. Bad calls stick.
❌Do not start CAD on any mechanism before Monday. Even if the reveal video strongly suggests a design direction. You don’t have the sizing rules yet.
❌Do not commit to a tournament schedule yet. RobotEvents listings for the new season aren’t fully populated. Eager teams register for events they can’t make it to.
❌Do not over-plan kickoff week itself. Block the time (Mon evening, Tue afternoon) but keep agendas flexible. You don’t know yet what Monday’s reading will reveal.
✅
Monday morning rule for captains and coaches: read the Game Manual before your first team meeting. Flag the sections students should prioritize. Show up ready to guide, not to discover alongside them.
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// Section 02
Kickoff Week — Day by Day 📅
From game reveal to first prototype in five days. Every role has a job. Every day has an outcome.
Kickoff week is the highest-leverage week of the season. Teams that use it well arrive at their first competition with a clear robot concept, prototype data, and three notebook entries. Teams that don't spend two months guessing.
D0
Reveal Day — Watch, Download, Read
All roles · 2–3 hours
● Watch the official game reveal video together as a team
● Download the game manual — everyone gets a copy
● Each member reads the full manual independently — not just the strategy section
● Flag every scoring action with a sticky note or comment
● Do not prototype anything yet. Understand before you build.
The rule: Your robot concept should be locked by Day 5. Not finalized — locked. A team that is still brainstorming in Week 3 is two weeks behind. The decision on Day 2 does not need to be perfect. It needs to exist.
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// Section 03
Identify the Game Type 🔬
Read the scoring table. Every VRC game falls into a recognizable type. The type tells you which preseason guide to open first.
Within 24 hours of reveal, you should be able to categorize this season's game. VRC has cycled through the same core game types for over a decade — and each type has a proven mechanism meta. Knowing the type is the fastest path to the right prototype.
🔬 Game Type Identifier — Ask These Questions
🔨 Is there a tall scoring structure? (posts, towers, stacks >24")
If scoring requires placing objects above chest height or stacking multiple elements — this is a Lifting Game.
Examples: Skyrise, In The Zone, Tower Takeover, Tipping Point
⚡ Hybrid — lifting AND shooting, or lifting AND pushing?
Some games combine mechanisms. Identify which task is worth the highest points per second — that determines your primary mechanism. Build the primary first, add the secondary only after it is reliable.
Use the Game Analysis efficiency calculator to find the highest-value action.
Chain bar + four-bar for goal grabbing + elevation
2022–23
Spin Up
Shoot
Flex wheel flywheel dominant, puncher for close range, catapult full-court
2025–26
Push Back
Push
Drivetrain + intake cycle speed — no complex lift or shooter needed
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// Section 04
Mechanism Routing 🔗
Every site guide, sequenced by when you need it during kickoff week. Click the guide that matches your game type and where you are in the process.
These guides were designed to be used in a specific order during kickoff week. The preseason guides come first — they help you decide what to build. The mechanism reference guides come second — they help you build it correctly.
Three required entries. Written before you tighten a single screw. This is the evidence judges need to score your design process.
⚠️
The most common reason teams lose the Design Award: their notebook starts 3 months in. These three entries must exist with dates from kickoff week or judges cannot give you credit for your design process.
E1
Game Description & Season Goals
Day 0–1 · Strategist or entire team
Describe the game in one paragraph — what the robot must do to score. State your team's specific, measurable season goals. List your constraints: build time, budget, experience level, motor count.
Must include
✓ Game name and season — "Spartan Robotics, VRC 2026-27, Override"
✓ What the robot must do to score — name every scoring action
✓ Season goal — e.g., "Qualify to state by February, top 20% skills"
✓ Constraints — "6 team members, $800 budget, must be competition-ready by Week 8"
✓ Date — kickoff day. This establishes the timestamp.
E2
Criteria, Constraints & Mechanism Decision
Day 2 · Engineer-led, all roles input
Document how you chose your mechanism. A brainstorm list, a decision matrix, and the conclusion. Judges score this entry heavily — it shows your design process, not just your outcome.
Must include
✓ Game type identification — "This is a [lifting/shooting/push] game because..."
✓ Brainstorm list — all mechanisms your team considered (minimum 3)
✓ Decision matrix — weight your criteria, score each option numerically
✓ Decision + rationale — which mechanism won and why it beat the others
✓ Reference to historical precedent — "In [Game], this mechanism dominated because..."
E3
Prototype Results & Build Plan
Day 4–5 · All roles · Data-driven
Document your first prototype session. What worked. What failed. What data you collected. Then lay out Week 1–4 build milestones. This is your engineering evidence — photos, cycle times, failure modes.
Must include
✓ Photo of the prototype (dated)
✓ Test data — cycle time, success rate, failure modes observed
✓ What you learned — 3 specific observations, not "it worked ok"
✓ Changes to make — what will be different in the competition build
✓ Week 1–4 build milestones — when will each subsystem be complete?
Each role has a specific job during kickoff week. Nobody is just "watching." If everyone is doing the engineer's job, nobody is doing the strategist's job.
Kickoff week rule: By Day 5, every team member should be able to answer: what is the highest-value action in this game, what mechanism are we building, and what needs to happen in Week 1? If anyone cannot answer all three, kickoff week is not done.