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The official VEX V5 Robotics Competition Question & Answer system has closed for this season. If your team is planning to attend the 2025 VEX Robotics World Championship, you may submit game and event-related questions to the 2025 VEX Robotics World Championship Driver's Meeting Question Collection Form, which is available at this link: https://forms.gle/VpoRH5GmhktejJ8R8.

Official Q&A: VEX V5 Robotics Competition 2024-2025: High Stakes

Usage Guidelines All Questions

2509: Horizontal expansion - Violation Notes

Peter Buchanan (Event Partner)
6-Feb-2025

<SG2>

In a recent elimination match, one red robot playing defense caused a blue robot's mechanism to partially detach causing the blue robot to unintentionally horizontal expand. This expansion had no strategic benefit and hindered the robot's performance. However, blue did win the match, and the referee stated that this horizontal expansion was repeated in the match (it had not happened before during the event) and therefore disqualified the blue alliance. In Q&A 2262, the GDC stated "As described in the Violation Note for <SG2>," but did not confirm that the given examples were examples that should not escalate to a Major Violation.

  1. Can the GDC confirm that the given examples should not escalate?

  2. Can the GDC provide guidance on how referees determine "extreme circumstances"?

SG2  
Answered by committee
6-Feb-2025
  1. Can the GDC confirm that the given examples should not escalate?

The examples in the Violation notes should generally not escalate to Major Violations, but if the Violation is determined to be strategic or intentional it can and probably should become a Major Violation. Every scenario is different, and we cannot provide absolute guidance.

  1. Can the GDC provide guidance on how referees determine "extreme circumstances"?

We try very hard to avoid defining terms that aren't unique to the game manual, or that aren't used in an unusual way in our competitions. A Google search for the definition of 'extreme circumstances' suggests that they're "unusual or severe situations that are difficult to predict or prepare for." We can't define it better than that.