KnightKrawler has an "official" season that starts at Information Night and ends after our last competition. The last competition could be a regional in March or April, Championships (late April), or the State Tournament (mid-May).

We officially meet 11 months of the year. The mentors attempt to take a one month break for most of June. Optional meetings are typically held 1-2 days per week in the summer where students can work on special projects. These include, but are not limited to, building a new drive mechanism the team has not tried before or programming an autonomous routine. The team also does various outreach activities during the summer that students are encouraged, but not required, to attend.

During offseason, we attend Minne Mini and the Minnesota Robotics Invitational. These take place in the fall and use the previous season's game to introduce new students to FIRST Robotics.

We also attend two regular-season competitions in Minnesota; the Northern Lights Regional in Duluth and the Minnesota 10,000 Lakes Regional in Minneapolis. If we qualify for FIRST Championships, we take a trip to Houston, Texas in April. We can also qualify for the Minnesota state competition, which is in May.

While robotics is a large time commitment, it is possible to participate in other activities. Fall and Spring activities typically work best with the robotics season. Our Build Season is in January, which makes it difficult, but still possible, to do a winter sport/activity and robotics. Also, robotics meetings start later in the night, at 6:00 pm, so clubs and other activities right after school can work. If you have more questions, talk to or email our team advisor at Information Night.

No! Information Night is typically held towards the end of September; new students can begin attending meetings that week. Students do not need to commit to the team until the beginning of December. This offers a "trial period" to students who are unsure if they want to join our team. During these month, students play icebreaker games to get to know each other and have the chance to rotate through our three subteams to get a feel for which one they might want to join.

Our required annual budget is usually between $80,000 and $90,000, depending on team size and if we qualify for the championship tournament in Houston (we have qualified every year since 2013). Most of this budget is funded by our generous sponsors, and Irondale High School pays for non champs transportation. The rest is paid by our students' activity registration fee. If you receive educational benefits then it is free, otherwise it is $200 per person. This is about the same as or lower for all activities. After minnietrials (a pre-season training challenge), students are officially a part of the team. They will then pay the activity fee in full or in seperate payments throught the year.. Out-of-town competitions are not included in this fee. Those are considered donations to the team that are task-deductible, which are an additional additional $250 each. All fees are waived for any student who recieve educational benefits.

NOTE: Irondale has an "activity cap" which allows students who are in multiple activities to only pay for one. Unfortunately, this cap does NOT apply to robotics, meaning that students will have to pay the registration fee regardless of participation in other Irondale activities.

The Parents of Knightkrawler (POK) are a huge part of our team! In addition to serving lunch at Saturday meetings during build season, our parents organize out-of-town competition travel and lodging, build the temporary field for our Week Zero practice competition, raise funds to help students with travel fees, and much more. They host meetings throughout the year to organize these events.

Students earn and track points for participation in team activities. Points can be earned by doing about 2-3 hours of productive work for their subteam, training, attending team events, or volunteering opportunities. For students to be considered a part of the team they will need to complete 4 points by the beginning of December. To travel to overnight competitions students will need 10 points by the end of February for our Duluth competition. Students can also receive a Varsity Letter from Irondale for receiving 20 or more points by the end of robotics season.