We compete in around 4 invitationals each year during the Winter. They take place on weekends (usually Saturdays) and we'll often travel to them. Then we go to regionals in late February or early March and, if we do well enough, we can send a team to States, usually in mid to late March.
So what does a competition look like?
For each competition, we will send 1 or 2 teams, based on availability. Teams consist of 15 people. Each person will have 2-5 events that they specialize in and will compete in at each competition. In each event 2-3 people work together. Event assignments often change from competition to competition relating to who comes to competitions and scheduling at individual competitions.
For in-person competitions, we leave IHS earlish in the morning to arrive on-site before the competition starts. We often have our own classroom to stay in. The competitions are divided into around 7 blocks with each block featuring a few different events. For example, we might have the following schedule (based off of 2021-22 events):
8 AM: Detector Building (Test), Green Generation, Rocks & Minerals
9 AM: Codebusters, Dynamic Planet, Ornithology
10 AM: Disease Detectives, It's About Time (Test), Remote Sensing
11 AM: Chem Lab, WiFI Lab (Test), Write It Do It
12 PM: Cell Biology, Experimental Design, Forensics
1 PM: Anatomy & Physiology, Astronomy, Environmental Chemistry
2 PM: Codebusters, Dynamic Planet, Ornithology
Self-schedule: Bridge, Detector Building (Device), Gravity Vehicle, It's ABout Time (Device), Ping Pong Parachute, Trajectory, WiFi Lab (Device), Wright Stuff
Build events are often self-scheduled so whenever you and your partner are both free, you can test your device.
When you have time off, people will often play games, or cheer on teammates who are testing builds. We then go to the awards ceremony before heading back to Ithaca.
Virtual tournaments are generally pretty similar except events are done at IHS. This means if you have all your events in the morning, you can head home afterwards.