I was at a middle school event that tried to have an elementary event also but did not have enough elementary students so they just did middle but they gave out a elementary excellence award along with a middle school excellence award at the same event is this legal? They also said the judges award was only given to someone with a notebook but our team won a judges award at our state competition without one from the same judge.
Regarding the middle school/elementary school seperate excellences I think that’s legal. Sometimes at VEX EDR tournaments there’s a high school + a middle school excellence.
As for judges, it’s an extremely subjective award where judges can for the most part decide the criteria (hence the name). I’m guessing in the state tournament where you won they based it on coolest robot, but in your tournament the judges probably thought there was a really nice documentation on a team that didn’t get a high enough rubric award. Either way, there isn’t exactly a set way to do judges.
Note: I didn’t realize this was about vex IQ until it was done writing this.
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If they have 10 elementary teams then they give an elementary excellence.
This was classified as a middle school event because there was not enough elementary teams to make it a state qualified event so they didnt have the elementary event but they did give one elementary award only which was the excellence award.
If they ended up running a blended Middle School and Elementary School event, then it is certainly legal to give out both a Middle School Excellence Award and an Elementary School Excellence Award. If there are atl least 10 of each, they are pretty much required to give one of each. And as has been mentioned above, the Judge’s Award can be given to any team the Judges decide is deserving of special recognition that doesn’t fit under another award. The Judges that awarded the award to the team with the notebook, are you sure they said it was to a team with ONLY a notebook or that in this case they were giving to this team because of their notebook?
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In my (admittedly limited) experience as a VEX IQ judge, the judges award is given to teams who was a contender for several of the others, and who judges felt that they should recieve recognition. It’s an extremely subjective award, which is why it usually doesn’t qualify to advance.
Notebook is usually a large consideration for judges awards; oftentimes it is given to the team with the highest notebook score who didn’t win design or excellence.
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Seperate Elementary and Middle School awards in the same tournament are allowed.
As for the Judges Award: its description allows a lot of freedom for judges, more than any other VEX Award. It’s given to a team who may not have been given a different awards but who the judges believed still deserved special recognition. It’s up to their discretion whether a notebook is required.
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