The Q&A is closed for the 2021-2022 season. Any rule changes or clarifications pertaining to the 2022 VEX Robotics World Championship will be included in the April 5 Game Manual Update. Teams attending VEX Worlds who wish to pre-submit questions for the driver's meeting should have received a contact form via email; if not, please contact your REC Foundation Team Engagement Manager for more information.

Official Q&A: VRC 2021-2022: Tipping Point

Usage Guidelines All Questions

821: T6 Question


2114C
20-Jul-2021

T6 States:

The red Alliance, or the highest seed, places last. The red Alliance has the right to place its Robots on the field last in both Qualification Matches and Elimination Matches. Once a Team has placed its Robot on the field, its position cannot be readjusted prior to the Match. If a Team violates this rule, the opposing Alliance will be given the opportunity to reposition their Robots promptly.

This is ambiguous in the elimination round in that the red alliance may not necessarily be the highest seeded alliance. For example, in a standard 16 alliance bracket, if in the Round of 16 the 16th alliance defeats the 1st alliance, then they will go on to play in the quarter finals as the red alliance, as shown in the bracket in the game manual (which is also attached). img In this scenario they will be playing as the red alliance against the higher seeded blue alliance, which will be either the 8th or 9th alliance. In this scenario it is unclear which alliance has the right to place their robots last.

In previous seasons, the wording of the rule has been more clear:

The red alliance, or the highest seed, places last. In Qualification Matches, the red Alliance has the right to place its Robots on the field last. In Elimination Matches, the higher (better) seeded Alliance has the right to place its Robots on the field last. Once a Team has placed its Robot on the field, its position cannot be readjusted prior to the Match. If a Team violates this rule, the opposing Alliance will be given the opportunity to reposition their Robots promptly

With this wording of the rule, the Blue alliance in the above scenario would clearly be granted the right to place last.

Given the creation of the "Neutral Zone" for this year's game, this rule is much more relevant now than in recent years and could very well affect the outcome of many matches; therefore it is important to have clarity on this subject.

Additionally, there is another scenario which neither of these wordings cover. At the World Championship (and other similar multi-divisional tournaments), the division champions will face off in an elimination bracket. In these scenarios, there is no relative seeding to compare alliances by and the positions in the bracket are decided by which divisions they were randomly placed in. How will T6 be enforced in this scenario?

Answered by committee

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. In the Game Manual v1.1 update, rule T6 was modified to clarify that the red Alliance always has the right to place its Robots on the field last, regardless of seed.

<T6> The red Alliance places last. The red Alliance has the right to place its Robots on the field last in both Qualification Matches and Elimination Matches. Once a Team has placed its Robot on the field, its position cannot be readjusted prior to the Match. If a Team violates this rule, the opposing Alliance will be given the opportunity to reposition their Robots promptly.