At one competition, we never managed to have more than half the team present when the judges came to interview us. And they checked back multiple times.
And yet you won excellence at states that same season.
I improved a lot the month before states 
Anyway for me it’s “go away, we forfeit any judged awards”
-My team at the Cardinal Classic because our tray flip-out wasn’t working
Really?
I don’t remember the exact words, but that was the gist of it.
Why did not not just present it as a struggle and still do the interview?
We didn’t turn them away because we didn’t want to show them our failure, but because we were in crunch time to fix it. We actually had to walk away from our first match because we couldn’t get it folded up. (It folded up fine, but wouldn’t stay like that)
P.S. Lets not get too off-topic
Maybe have each team member credit ideas other team members came up with. So if you were the one who designed something, one of your teammates could point out that feature and give you credit for designing it, and then either of you could elaborate on how it works. Likewise, for something your teammate designed, you or a third teammate could point it out and the one who designed it could give more details.
at state I literally didn’t realize we were being judged until like halfway into our judging routine (luckily I’m usually the last person to speak). I thought they were some coaches or something
using “I”
They should not be, judges should be professionals in their disciplines.
College students are still learning.
This actually happened at a competition.
Judge: What do you think your team struggled in this year?
Teammate: Well our notebook kind of sucked.
We forgot to print our programs out ahead of time, and when we were putting it in our notebook the morning of state, we were so flustered that when a judge walked up To us, we asked him to wait while we finish putting the pages in.
Judges ask a question to a member on the team
that team member looks at parents searching for an answer
parents silently mouth out the answer
judges notice and kindly tell the parents to step aside as it is a team interview
parent refuses to move and gets mad
parent ends up confessing to doing the notebook when the judges have a talk with them
true story
seems like most middleschool teams
i was trying to think of some crazy story, but then realized that my team has actually gotten quite good at interviews. word of advice: practice
I dont practice interviews at all really. I just tell them what comes to mind, and what I felt as i was making the robot.
I think it was the first tournament of the season for us in tower takeover and in the note book I mentioned that we were using the same code that I had used last year. Like normal people. At least I think. Anyways one of the judges asked me if I stole code because they though I was cheating. I think gladly because our school was holding the event my mentor reassured the judges that I didn’t cheat.
Tell the judge that Vex parts are expensive so you didn’t use any