How do competitions work

VEX IQ General Discussion General Discussion
1

I joined my team mid season and have never competed in a competition before so I was wondering how they worked so I could be prepared for my first one. Can anyone tell me? Thanks

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2

You get a qualifying round schedule, and you go to the matches it states. At the end, there is a time where the top people pick partners, and each team goes through a bracket to get to be tournament champions. Then there is the award ceremony

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4

Just to confirm, are you in VRC or in VIQC? You posted in a VEX IQ category, but the answers above apply to VRC.

5

This was posted VEX IQ section, so I’ll answer for the VIQC (VEX IQ Challenge).

  • Most events have robots inspected before they can play to ensure that they conform to the robot regulations and rules. This is stuff such as making sure your robot isn’t too big, etc.
  • Typically, there is a driver briefing/event meeting before any matches begin to welcome teams, and usually, most of your questions can be asked and answered then.
  • For the Teamwork Challenge, your qualification matches, you’ll be paired with another team in matches where you work together on the same game field to score points. You both receive the same amount of points.
  • You should also get the opportunity to participate in the Robot Skills Challenge, which is split into two sections.
    • Driver Skills is where you get 60 seconds of time on the game field driving alone (no teammate) to score as many points as you can.
    • Programming Skills is where your robot has 60 seconds to complete autonomous routines programmed by the team. Only in these matches can you strategically pick up your robot and reset it to a legal starting position, even if it hasn’t flipped, etc.
    • Rankings for the Robot Skills Challenge are determined by which team has the highest combined Programming and Driver Skills score.
  • After each qualification match is complete, your average score is updated, which is what determines your ranking.
  • After all the qualification matches have been played, teams within a certain threshold (e.g. top 10 teams) are paired together (1st and 2nd, 3rd and 4th, etc.) for the finals matches.
    • The first pair sets a score, and the second pair and so forth try to beat it. If you score higher, the previous team are knocked-out and you now set the score to beat higher in their pace. If you score lower, you are knocked out and the score to beat remains. This process repeats until all finals games (and sometimes tiebreakers) have been played.
  • Finally, there is usually an awards ceremony, to hand out the performance awards (Robot Skills Champions and Teamwork Challenge Champions) and also other judged awards such as the Design, Build, Think and Judges awards.

Simply put for clarification, VEX EDR are metal robots with nuts and bolts, etc. and VEX IQ are plastic robots with snap-together parts. VEX EDR’s competition programme is the VRC (VEX Robotics Competition) and VEX IQ’s is the VIQC (VEX IQ Challenge, the one I just talked about).

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