Skills scores

VEX Robotics Competition Discussion VRC > In The Zone (17/18)
1

I apologize in advance if this is the wrong channel to address this, but maybe you could help direct it to the correct one if this is not the right one.

Based on various previous posts, including a question posted here, earlier on, some skills scores have included highest stack bonuses. Given that the data would should be available through whatever is sent in from Tournament Manager, will there be any adjustments made to scores that included these bonuses?

Obviously it is not that big of a deal for law scores, but anything over 80 in driver skills could change who gets to worlds through global skills rankings. I realize it is early season and none of the scores currently up will likely be in the top 35 for high school or top 15 for middle school but they could be high enough to get someone in from a particular region.

It may turn out that none of the higher scores would be changed, but it would be worth checking. I am sure that if any are changed, they would still be very high scores. It gives a potential of 21 points from3 cones where others are only getting 6 points from the same 3 cones.

2

Typically, this type of question would be directed to the Awards Q&A or your REC Foundation Regional Support Manager. However, this was a complex decision, requiring a rules clarification and input from the GDC, the REC Foundation, and the people who run both Tournament Manager and RobotEvents.com. So, I’m going answer this question once in this thread, on behalf of all of the parties involved.

For any events up to and including this weekend (Nov 12, 2017), any Highest Stack bonuses from VRC Skills Challenge score submissions were identified and removed. That is, if a team’s score was 100 with two Highest Stacks, then it was changed to 90 in the global skills database. These scores were not deleted or rejected, just adjusted to match the rules. An update to Tournament Manager with improved score validation is in development, and having the ability to submit Highest Stacks in Skills will no longer be an option. When that is released, we will do another pass of the scores to catch any incorrect ones entered between now and then.

VEX events are managed and refereed almost exclusively by volunteers. Whenever possible, we will stand behind the calls made by the volunteers responsible for a given event. It is generally not the policy of the GDC and/or the REC Foundation to modify event results due to scoring or refereeing anomalies that are raised after an event has concluded. As stated in the game manual, referees have ultimate authority during the competition, and their rulings are final.

However, an exception was made in this case, in the interest of promoting fairness and consistency across all events. Since the global Skills Challenge rankings are judged on the same plane across different events, it was worthwhile to double-check that they were all being scored the same way.

Of the 1631 currently ranked teams, less than 100 had their scores changed, including two in the top 300. We do not think there was malicious intent with these submissions, just innocent mistakes by those unfamiliar with Skills Challenge scoring. In general, this has been a good learning opportunity to demonstrate why it is important for every volunteer and team, not just head referees, to read the manual and familiarize themselves with the nuances of the competition each year.