To the VEX V5RC community:
We have seen your concern, heard your feedback, and would like to take the opportunity to explain the thought process and reasoning behind some of the changes to the robot construction rules for the 2025-2026 VEX V5 Robotics Competition season.
Most of the concern seems centered around the following topics:
- R25 - Custom Plastics Allocation
- 3D Printed Decorations
- License Plates
Custom Plastics
Over the last three seasons, we’ve noticed a shift in how teams interpret the previous rule for custom plastics. Teams began to push the limits of the rule, constructing incredible mechanisms and robots with innovative uses of non-shattering plastic.
This trend was most noticeable at the highest levels of competition throughout this past season. Teams used hundreds of custom plastic parts on their robots. This revolution created a ‘skill gap’ that we believe is not within the ethos of the VEX V5 Robotics Competition, and we became concerned that it may have gone too far.
The VEX V5 Robotics Competition (V5RC), at its core, is a closed-system robotics competition intended to provide teams with a relatively level playing field. For the most part, every team competing in V5RC has equal access to all of the same parts. It is the GDC’s opinion that custom plastic, to the extent that it was used in the 2024-2025 season, was antithetical to the closed-system architecture that V5RC relies upon. We identified this as a necessary update to bring the competition back within its intended bounds.
We also received feedback from Referees and Event Partners throughout the year expressing concerns that the extensive use of custom plastic parts made inspection virtually impossible at some events. Event Staff were having trouble identifying parts as functional or non-functional, and could not identify a way to accurately verify that all custom plastic parts on a robot were nestable within a 12” x 24” sheet of plastic. It was reported that in the interest of time, in some regions, this rule was all but ignored during inspection.
In other words, the previous custom plastics allocation rule was unenforceable.
While we did set clearer limits this year—twelve plastic pieces up to 4” x 8” each—it’s worth pointing out that this actually allows more total material than before. In the 2024–2025 season (High Stakes), teams were limited to a single sheet of plastic up to 12” x 24”—that’s 288 square inches.
With the new R25, teams now have 384 square inches of plastic to work with. That’s over 30% more total area than before. So while the size of each piece may be smaller than some previously legal parts, the total allowance is actually larger. We feel this is an appropriate compromise.
3D Printed Decorations
Similar to the confusion with plastics, Event Staff around the globe have had an increasingly difficult time determining whether or not 3D printed parts are truly non-functional to a robot.
In hindsight, the use of the term ‘non-functional’ was not fair to our Volunteers. We were asking them to determine if a part of a robot they have never seen before serves a game-affecting function on the robot without even watching a match. This unfortunately led to varied interpretations, with some legal parts being removed (at the time), and some illegal parts being allowed to pass (at the time).
It was determined that the cleanest solution to this issue was to not allow any 3D printed parts on robots, no matter their function (or lack thereof). This should make it much easier to determine legality of parts on robots, allow for more efficient inspection, and create a healthier competitive environment that better fits the closed system that VEX intends to be.
We encourage teams to find other ways to use 3D printers to serve their needs. Adding paddles to controllers, creating custom toolbox inserts and other organizational tools, and making autonomous alignment jigs are all good examples of useful 3D printing in VEX.
License Plates
We updated the license plate rules for 2025-2026 to help observers, Referees, Emcees, Inspectors, and Teams.
License plates help observers identify what team and alliance a robot belongs to. Referees rely on license plate colors and legibility to make rules calls (like holding). Emcees depend on license plates for accurate in-match commentary. When a license plate falls off during a match, team and alliance information becomes lost and everyone’s experience suffers as a result. Limiting each robot to a single color of license plate and encouraging stronger mounting methods will help ensure that the correct plates remain visible throughout the match. Given the importance of license plates in these situations, we felt it was appropriate to reconsider their status as ‘non-functional’, as well.
Until now, license plates have been considered non-functional decorations, but this status hasn’t been consistently enforced. Classifying them as functional components eliminates the need for judgment calls about functionality (e.g., did contacting the High Stakes ladder with a license plate meet that AWP criterion?), and makes them just another part of the robot.
Conclusion
With all of this in mind, we hope you better understand why these changes were made, and why we do not plan to repeal any of these updates. The GDC does not intend to hinder innovation, stifle engineering possibilities, or prevent teams from doing cool things. In fact, we feel that many of these changes encourage good engineering practices, and we look forward to seeing how teams innovate around the new constraints.
If you still disagree, there is a common thought experiment that may be an apt metaphor:
“Sometimes you have to move backwards before you can move forwards.” - Anonymous
The GDC is committed to paying close attention to how these updates play out over the 2025-2026 season. If teams demonstrate a willingness and/or capability to follow these rules as written, the GDC is open to exploring ways to slowly open some of these restrictions in future seasons.
We always appreciate feedback in any form, and this situation is no different. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected] with any more concerns about this topic or others. We have already received a great deal of feedback from the initial manual release, and our team is working hard on the first manual update already. And yes, we are going to fix the expansion rule, don’t worry.
We appreciate the passion you have displayed over the past few days. It is our hope that you are able to channel that passion into new, creative ideas that will work under these new rules. Thank you, and good luck to all teams in Push Back.
Sincerely,
The VEX Robotics Game Design Committee
