I’ve heard different answers from different people, so I wanted to comfirm…
Is the judges interview & notebooking an easier way to get the excellence award rather than being in the top teams in driving?
I’ve seen teams who the judges remember (teams wearing odd outfits that stand out, suppose clowns) always getting an award, even if it’s not excellence.
You can only get the excellence award if you are a top contender. (top 30% in note booking, interviews, skills overall, autonomous and teamwork)
It really depends on the state and the judges.
Personally, I think the easiest way to get into states is via either skills, or teamwork champion. As this relies on what you can control rather than what the judges think. (some judges have kids that they are coaching)
This is very helpful for all qualifying material and what each award does. If you do wear a cool outfit (Jedi, cardboard suit etc), you will get some attention by judges and refs which may give them a spirit award or something like that, but most of those awards do not qualify for a team to go to state. It mostly depends on where you are based and what state you are because some have more state openings than others. I know in my state there is on average, after all of our competitions; 10 extra spots or so. Those open spots unclaimed by any teams will automatically go to whoever is the top 10 skills in my state (may vary based on where you live). If there is any double qualification for a team, it goes to the next placement in the state for skills.
Ex: I am 11th place in state for skills
All of the top 10 in skills in my state already qualified for state at a competition
I instantly qualify for state
The rankings of your state can be found on robotevents.com and just go to vex iq skills standings. Then sort to what ever your state is.
A great way into making it to state is skills because being top 10 in the skills list will almost definitely reach you to state. Sometimes it is dependent on where you are located.
The information here will be 99% accurate for IQ (just look at the specific awards that qualify as those will be different)
Nope. It really doesn’t.
The guide to judging spells out the criteria for the excellence award. It applies to all countries and all states.
Yeah, but you do realize that there are biased judges right? (From personal experience)
Last comp, the judges only gave the judged awards to their own teams, thus sending them into states.
I have no information about your event, but if you are going to make serious Code of Conduct accusations, then you (or your mentor/coach) need to follow up with your RSM.
I, and all the EP’s I know are careful to have certified Judge Advisors (for our events, we bring in a JA from another state, so there is no affiliation or even knowledge of any teams at our events) who follow the Judges guide. In many cases, an organization which is advanced enough to host tournaments also tends to have very good teams who earn awards.
In my opinion, the easiest way to get into state is to get a high ranking in skills because the only other is through winning an actual match which is only two teams so it is a lot more likely that you get in through top ten in skills than in top 2 for the regular game. Additionally, skills is a lot easier to most teams because you don’t have to deal with bad teammates and you are the only bot on the field, leading to a higher consistency rate. This is why my team has a large focus on skills, auton and driver, instead of mostly just on the regular competition.
Ahh sorry, no idea what i was thinking typing that. I guess I got pretty fired up from writing responses at 10:00 pm
Incorrect, excellence award also qualifies for state.