As we approach the middle of the 6-week robot build season, The Green Machine is working hard to make the Week Zero event for the Southwest Hub a success. This pre-season competition is a mock regional competition, complete with robot pits and a full field with all of the FIRST STEAMWORKS game elements. These Week Zero events are held all over Minnesota as well as around the country. The practice events provide FIRST teams with a chance to see how their robot will perform ahead of the stop-build/bag-up-robots day on February 21st.

For FRC Teams in the southwest metro, this year’s Week Zero event will take place at Eden Prairie High School, on Sunday, February 19th. This event is hosted by Team 2502-Talon, with considerable assistance from 1816, 4778-Stormbots, 5624-Nu-matic Ninjas, and 2239-Techncrats. The event, which is free and open to the public, is a simulation of a FIRST regional competition. Teams will have a chance to meet and scout each other’s robots, watch how the game and field elements work, and see how other teams’ robots are built. As the days tick down toward the end of build season, 1816 is looking forward to the Week Zero event as well as to the FIRST Lake Superior Regional competition, Duluth, MN, March 2 – 4 2017.