Yesterday we revealed the 2012 VEX Kiwi Challenge, 'Lord of Da Rings.
This game is designed to ‘fill the gap’ between the Nationals and the new VEX game as this gap happens to be right at the start of our new school year and teams want something to do.
You can find the game info here http://www.vexrobotics.co.nz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=110&Itemid=95
Any team in the world is welcome to play.
When are competitions
That is up to the local areas to plan, have one at your school with protobots and get other local schools to enter. We are just organising the ones in New Zealand.
Again we are just trying to give teams something to use to train up new members/schools until the new 2012-2013 VEX season starts.
We’re looking forward to this 
It doesn’t specify, so I’m assuming there is no autonomous?
I am 95% sure that the answer is that there is no autonomous. The Game Design Committee wanted to keep the game simple so that students could build their robot, put some drive control code (or use the default code on the microcontrollers) and be able to play the game straight away.
This sounds like a really great alternative to the main Vex competition for new students and classrooms. Similar to the Swept Away game, but using some Round Up elements. Gonna recommend this to my teacher.
Autonomous was decided against as the Protobot kit didn’t include a programming cable and therefore teams would be unable to create an autonomous sequence (there’s the extra cost of a license for ROBOTC/EasyC as well.
The aim of the game was for new students to the VEX robotics competition and driving is always appealing to new students.
There’s still 2 min of driving though
VEX also provides a classroom competition kit based on Round Up. This isn’t a competitor to the Kiwi Challenge, but it is an alternative if you are elsewhere and want to try a simpler version of the game.
Just to make sure nothing gets misunderstood. The reason for ‘The Lord of Da Rings’ game is to help new teams down here get up and going while we wait for the new VEX game to get going. Any easy game will do.
In New Zealand our school year starts in February and we have heaps of new students wanting to do something at the start of the year. Previously the Kiwibots went into a sort of shutdown after our National competition in March until July when new elements were available and teams had managed to build robots that could start to cope with them.
We found rookie teams were either intimidated by the game or lost interest because there was nothing happening at the start of their year. Hence the ‘stocking filler’ of the Kiwi Challenge. Once they are up to speed then they will jump into the new season’s VEX game with more confidence.
We encourage teams to use any means possible to recruit new menbers. We want New Zealand to be bigger and better than it is now, not competition wise but STEM wise.
Rick if at any time you think we may be competing with you just let us know and we will stop it is not our intention to do so. We chose the rings as it was those very rings that got New Zealand hooked in the first place 
You guys at VEX and RECF rock.
No worries at all. A lot of people don’t know that VEX provides smaller, simpler games for classroom settings and smaller groups of schools, so I posted that link for additional ideas. I think what you are doing is great, and I think there is a place in the world for an entry-level competition using the Classroom Lab Kit. Have fun!