Vex IQ Elementary World Championship Division assignment musings

Division assignments can be seen by scrolling down on the main tab here
https://www.robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-iq-challenge/RE-VIQC-21-3833.html

There are 4 Divisions

Mercury:
51 teams
Highest Rank (Score): 1 (447)
Lowest Rank (Score): 181 (141)
Average Score of all teams in Division: 219.96

Venus:
54 teams
Highest Rank (Score): 150 (146)
Lowest Rank (Score): 449 (76)
Average Score of all teams in Division: 111.48

Mars:
54 teams
Highest Rank (Score): 395 (84)
Lowest Rank (Score): 738 (38)
Average Score of all teams in Division: 66.13

Jupiter:
55 teams
Highest Rank (Score): 659 (40)
Lowest Rank (Score): 1500 (2)
Average Score of all teams in Division: 14.70

There seems to be some leakage between divisions because there are 4 teams ranked below 150 in the Mercury Division, yet the “best” team in Venus is ranked 150th.

Also there are 8 teams without a posted score at all in the Jupiter division, the must have won an online contest of some sort (and hopefully haven’t just sandbagged!)

My concern with dividing like this is it seems so arbitrary on where to draw the lines (other than top 50, next 50, next 50 etc) and the 659th team in the world seemingly has a better shot of taking home an Excellence Banner from World’s than the #2 team does.

4 Likes

There was a formula for putting them together and they did specify that LRS would be put with teams of their caliber.

To be fair (tooo beeee faiiirr!) there isn’t really a good way to do this. It’s my understanding that the smaller awards can happen at a divisional level, but the Excellence Award is for the full event. I think even if you swirled the teams all together there would be an equal chance of some of the teams winning Innovate or Energy, etc. It’s a very weird year, with 1000’s of teams not being able to compete.

I’m happy that those roboteers got a chance to build / play this year and were able to get to Worlds and be on the Big Stage (or is it the Big Screen).

5 Likes

Extra points were given for teams who competed more as well as extra points given to teams who won excellence or design awards at their regional championship. That would likely change up the rankings a small amount like what you have shown.

Just noticed that the Elementary LRS Jupiter (4th) division had 4 teams in the top 7 finishers that had zero skills runs in the World Rankings pre-tournament. These teams presumably qualified in teamwork matches somewhere in the world and were not required to have a skill run posted to be able to enter the LRS contest.

LRT teams were required two tournaments pre-worlds in order to compete. The LRS teams should have had the same requirement.

I was not a fan of the way teams were divided in the divisions, but this seems like an unfair cherry on top. The Jupiter champion outscored the Venus (2nd) & Mars (3rd) division champs and would have finished in 20th in the Mercury (1st) division.

1 Like

Congrats to the 130!!! teams that either equaled or bested their PB in LRS worlds, including an incredible 41 teams in the Jupiter division (not counting the 4 who didn’t have a score posted).

Biggest gainers were
8390Z with a 169 point improvement over their previous PB
839Y and 55580C with 101 point improvements.

@SCFarrell , thanks for getting those numbers! We didn’t even pay attention to how much improvements they have gained over their qualification rankings to the worlds. Kids did put tremendous amount of hours before worlds. 8390Z almost outtake everybody and claimed world champion. We are super proud about what they have achieved this season!

1 Like

We have 6 teams in, 5 have competed so far. 2 of them hit PBs.

Our best performing team missed tying their PB by 1 point and finished 21st in the top division (12th among US teams). They put in a mountain of work starting at the game reveal last year and were maxed out pretty much by the Worlds. While they continued to practice, they treated Worlds as a capstone experience and cemented their run rather than pushing for the next step up. They had a great year winning the WV Excellence Award, which was their primary goal.

I am ready for a break! (until the game reveal Saturday I suppose)

1 Like

That’s a short break! Our journey still continues, as we have 3 more MS VIQC teams coming in, including our best VIQC 839A fighting in both LRT and LRS. After Saturday, it’s a new season, new target and new plan. As long as kids are setting their objectives, and try their best, I’m always happy with what have actually got at worlds.

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.