I’d also like to add that a lot of judges are volunteers, some who are picked for their knowledge of engineering/ computers/ programming, not necessary familiar with the minutiae of VEX like we are on this forum. Maybe they saw a specific bit of programming associated with this robot that was worth recognition?
I have not read the Think criteria, but when I saw your snippet, I thought that the reward was for programs that implement game strategy.
I think it is important to have flexibility built into the judging because sometimes a good team will not quite fit neatly into the rubric.
@Florida_Robot_Coach, I agree with you 100%. I wish I could agree more, but that’s not possible. I’m an engineer and I’ve coached middle-school robotics (FLL & IQ) for about 18 years. I think I’ve said the exact same thing as you at least a dozen times. (different teams, different awards)
Your ‘Think’ example is pretty clear and based on data. (good example)
One Florida team attended four events this season, and never made the finals. Their average qualifying finish was 25.8. Based on performance, that team was not in the top 50% of all teams that competed in the state this year. And, they won the highest award in the state, Excellence at the state tournament. That’s just a little more data to support your opinions.
You can argue about the wording of this award, or that award. In the end, the judged awards are subjective and selected by people. Those people may misunderstand some criteria when selecting the winner. (can I say that any nicer?)
As an Event Partner, I make sure the judges understand that the Excellence Award goes to a team that not only did well in the judged categories that they saw, but also in the performance areas that they didn’t see. I’m 100% sure that does not happen at all events. At some events, the judged awards carry more weight than performance awards.
The solution to this is to make sure all events are run according to the REC guidelines. This sounds easy, but I don’t think it is.
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The number of World spots is based on the number of teams in the region. Indiana has had more teams do skills runs (810) than Florida (370) and Texas (297) combined. California is #2 with 467. Indiana will get around 70 world spots between ES & MS.
Steve
Without going into details of one particular case, let me just state programming skills is not the sole measure. I would actually argue it is harder to write good teleop with complicated assistance.
I can imagine a team having great programming skills, using them efficiently for driver assistance, being able to explain their code to the judges - pointing out the intricacies, techniques used and all other aspects, that has just focused on teamwork, practicing before every match and skipping skills runs altogether, since their otherwise super-reliable skills program has already maxed out the capabilities of their robot and they have their best possible score already in the world skills rankings database…