Knowing what to build, tune, practice, and submit — and when — is what separates teams that scramble before competitions from teams that arrive prepared. This guide maps the whole season.
Your program runs year-round — and that is a competitive advantage. This timeline maps every phase from the Worlds game reveal through the following championship, including your summer camp and preseason development period.
🌟
The game reveal happens at Worlds each April/May. Teams that use the gap between reveal and fall competition season for deliberate preseason work — CAD practice, driver conditioning, notebook setup — arrive at their first event weeks ahead of teams that wait until August to start.
Apr – May
🌟 Phase 1 Worlds & Reveal
Worlds competition (if qualified)
New game announced at Worlds
Watch reveal stream as a team
Season debrief — what worked, what did not
Team roster decisions
Order parts for next season
May – Jun
☀️ Phase 2 Summer Camp
~2 week intensive program
New member onboarding
Fundamentals — build, code, drive
Clawbot training curriculum
First-30-minutes coding sessions
Robot pre-check habits established
Jun – Jul
🔧 Phase 3 Preseason Dev
Study new game manual in depth
CAD practice — OnShape robot sketches
Driver conditioning — foundation drills
Notebook template set up
Prototype mechanisms
Game strategy analysis
Jul – Aug
🚀 Phase 4 Design & Plan
Finalize robot design
Map all AWP conditions
Sketch 3+ robot concepts
Select final design
Parts list confirmed
Notebook design entries
Aug – Sep
🪣 Phase 5 Build & Code V1
Build drive base
First driver control upload
Build all mechanisms
Robot pre-check log started
First autonomous attempt
Port assignment log complete
Sep – Feb
🏆 Phase 6 Compete & Improve
PID tuning locked before Comp 1
AWP routine reliable at 80%+
Structured driver practice
Multiple qualifiers
Skills score improvements
Notebook kept current
Feb – Apr
⛬ Phase 7 Championship
State / region championship
Consistency-only practice
Notebook finalized
No new mechanisms
World Skills push
Worlds (if qualified)
☀️
Summer Camp advantage: new members who complete your summer camp arrive at the fall season already knowing how to open VS Code, upload code, and run driver control. Teams without preseason training spend their first 4–6 weeks on setup that your members did in June. That gap shows at the first qualifier.
The Three Things You Should Never Be Doing Simultaneously
Building new mechanisms while tuning PID. Mechanical changes invalidate tuning. Tune only on a mechanically stable robot.
Trying new code strategies the week before a competition. A feature that is not working in practice will not work at a competition. Lock it or cut it.
Writing the notebook after the season is over. Judges read notebooks as a real-time record. Backdated entries are obvious and penalized. Write entries within 48 hours of the work they document.
📅
The design freeze rule: set a specific date before each competition when the robot design is frozen — no new parts, no mechanism changes. Code changes after freeze are allowed only if they fix a confirmed bug, not introduce new features. A frozen robot arrives at competition predictably.
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// Section 02
Key Milestones and What They Mean
These are the specific outcomes that indicate your team is on track. If any of these are missing by their target week, it is a signal to reprioritize, not to work harder on whatever you are already doing.
Week 2 after kickoff
Game manual read and AWP conditions identified
Every team member has read the game manual. You can name exactly what the AWP tasks are this season and approximately how long they will take in autonomous. This is the foundation every other decision is built on.
Strategy
Week 4 after kickoff
Drive base built and first driver control upload done
VS Code + PROS is working, the drive base drives in all directions, and the robot has been through the pre-programming hardware check. A working drive base unlocks driver practice and autonomous development simultaneously.
Hardware + Code
6 weeks before first competition
All mechanisms functional and drive PID tuned
Every mechanism on the robot works. Drive and turn PID are tuned to a level where the robot completes a 24-inch drive within 1 inch of target. Mechanism code is stable. This is the prerequisite for autonomous route development.
Tuning
4 weeks before first competition
AWP autonomous working at 80%+ reliability
You can run the AWP routine 10 times and it succeeds at least 8. This is the minimum threshold to start using it in matches. Below 80%, the expected value of attempting it is lower than a simpler, more reliable autonomous.
Autonomous
3 weeks before first competition
Structured driver practice started and logged
At least 3 timed match simulations have been logged. The driver has a baseline cycle time measurement. You know what the driver's weakest skill is and have a drill targeting it.
Driver
1 week before first competition
Design freeze — robot and code locked
No new mechanisms, no new code features. The only allowed code changes are bug fixes on confirmed issues. The robot is the same every time you put it on the field. Consistency-only driver practice from here to the event.
Freeze
After each competition
Post-event debrief and rebuild list
Within 48 hours of each competition: write a notebook entry documenting what worked, what failed, and what the team decided to change. Create a specific, prioritized rebuild list. Teams that skip this step repeat the same problems at every event.
Notebook
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// Section 03
What Each Team Member Should Be Doing
In a 2–4 person team, everyone touches everything — but having clear ownership prevents tasks from falling through the cracks.
ℹ️
These are ownership areas, not rigid divisions. Everyone contributes to the notebook. Everyone learns to drive in a pinch. The point is that each item has exactly one person who is responsible for ensuring it gets done — not just that they do it alone.
Phase 2–3: Build and Tune Period
Primary Programmer
Code Ownership
› VS Code setup and PROS project › EZ Template chassis config › PID tuning (drive + turns) › Autonomous route development › AWP routine › Skills autonomous
Primary Driver
Driver Development
› Foundation drills daily › Match simulation runs › Skills Driver runs › Driver practice log › End-game execution › Strategy input for route planning
Builder / Lead
Hardware Ownership
› Robot pre-check each session › Port log maintained › Mechanism builds › Rebuild list after each event › CAD documentation › Robot inspection readiness
Notebook Lead
Documentation
› Entry within 48h of each session › Photo documentation › Design decision log › PID constants log › Driver improvement data › Judge interview prep
At Competition: Drive Team Roles
Driver
Controls the robot
› Selects autonomous on Brain screen › Executes match route › Calls out completed elements › Listens only to coach during match
Coach
Field-side strategy
› Verifies auton selector before match › Calls time at 60, 30, 15 seconds › Tracks score › Watches opponents for strategy
Pit Crew
Between-match support
› Robot hardware check between matches › Battery swap and charging › Emergency code upload if needed › Scouting next opponents
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// Section 04
Your Season Planner
Fill in your team's key dates. The planner saves automatically and calculates how many weeks you have between each milestone. Share this with your whole team at the start of the season.
Team Season Dates
Game Kickoff
When the new season launches
First Competition
First qualifier or scrimmage
Design Freeze (Comp 1)
1 week before first comp
Second Competition
Second qualifier
State / Region Championship
Qualifying event for Worlds
Notebook Submission Deadline
Check your state's specific deadline
World Championship
St. Louis, Apr 21–30 2026
Derived Milestone Targets
📅
Share this planner with your team. Print it or screenshot it and post it somewhere visible at your build space. Every team member should know the next competition date and the design freeze date at all times — these two dates drive every priority decision throughout the season.
Season planning is a project management problem. The Critical Path Method (CPM) identifies the sequence of dependent tasks that determines the minimum project duration. In VRC: if robot inspection prep requires a finished robot, which requires all mechanisms, which require all designs, then “design freeze” is on the critical path and cannot slip without delaying inspection readiness. Milestones are project management checkpoints; design freeze is the point after which new features are not added — a concept used in every engineering organization to prevent scope creep.
🎤 Interview line: “We apply project management concepts to season planning. We identified the critical path — the sequence of dependent milestones that determines our competition readiness date — and worked backward from State Championship to set our design freeze date. Missing the critical path milestone delays everything downstream.”
🔬 Check for Understanding
Your first competition is 6 weeks away. You want to add a new mechanism in week 4. According to good project management practice, the key question to ask first is:
Is the mechanism technically possible?
Does anyone on the team have time to build it?
Does adding it require revising designs or code that are already on the critical path, and do you have enough time to test and iterate before competition?