Official Q&A: Judging

**I was instructed to post my question/email in the Official Q&A by my RSM.

My students had asked me a question about this season’s Worlds LRS Excellence Criteria and I wasn't able to answer it.

Based on their research, the team learned that for Worlds LRS, the 48-team divisions will be grouped in tiers based on their skill level, and will not be randomly assigned like past seasons. They also learned that for the first time, each division will award a Divisional Excellence Winner and there will not be an overall Worlds Excellence Winner.

Since there will be no teamwork rankings to factor into the Divisional Excellence benchmarks in the seeded LRS competition, will the Divisional Excellence minimum skills criteria (currently they should be in the top 20%) be expanded to reflect the changes in the divisional structure?

When my students were looking at these changes they noticed that mathematically, it seems like it becomes prohibitively difficult for the top 48 teams placed in the highest skills division. Based on the current algorithm teams in the top division would have to rank in the Top 10 in world skills to qualify for their Divisional Excellence vs. needing to rank Top 80 (ish) in skills in the previous seasons to be considered for an overall World Excellence Winner in the past.

Will there be any changes to this season’s LRS Excellence benchmarks due to the seeded divisions? If so, may we please get an estimate of when we can anticipate an update?

Thank you so much! I appreciate your help and support.

Correct, there will not be an overall Excellence award. Rather there will be an Excellence award for each division of 48 teams (currently projected division size). Since there is no match play in LRS, match rankings cannot be used as a criterion for the Excellence award. In this case, skills ranking will be a criterion for the Excellence award within each division of 48 teams (currently projected division size). In other words, if there are 8 divisions of 48 teams in VRC HS LRS, there would be 8 Excellence awards, and skills rankings will be evaluated for the Excellence award only among the teams within each of those divisions.

Likewise for LRT, there is no skills play so skills rankings cannot be used as a criteron for the Excellence award. In this case, match rankings will be a criterion for the Excellence award within each division of 48 teams (currently projected division size).