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Robotics Education & Competition Foundation
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Judging

All Questions

Usage Guidelines

Welcome to the Official Judging Q&A. This system has been designed to provide an easy-to-use, integrated user experience for navigating judging questions. To ensure that the Competition Judging Committee is able to provide answers at the level of quality expected by our teams, we ask that you please review these guidelines prior to hitting "Submit".

Note 1: The Official Judging Q&A system is for Judging clarifications only.

  • For questions about game rules and interpretations, please navigate to the Official Game Q&A. Click the back button in your browser until you see the VEX Q&A Forum button, then click it to enter the Official Game Q&A.
  • For event, registration, or other competition support questions, please contact your REC Foundation Regional Support Manager.
  • For VEX technical support, contact [email protected] or [email protected].
  • For game questions, suggestions, or concerns outside of specific and official rules questions, contact [email protected].

Note 2: Only registered teams may ask questions in the Judging Q&A system.

  • In order to ask a question, you must be logged into a RobotEvents account that is either an Event Partner, or a Primary, Secondary, or Financial Contact for a team that is registered in the current competition season.
  • If you wish to ask a question but are not one of these, check with your coach, mentor or other team leader responsible for managing the team account. If you are a volunteer, such as a Head Referee, check with the Event Partner for the event at which you are volunteering.
  • IF you are the Primary Contact and have any questions about this process, please contact your REC Foundation Regional Support Manager.
  1. Read and search the Guide to Judging before posting.
  • The Judging Q&A is not a replacement for the Guide to Judging. Many, many of the questions asked each year could be answered by simply pressing Ctrl+F and searching the Guide to Judging. The Guide to Judging is a valuable tool - please use it!
  1. Read and search existing Judging Q&As before posting.
  • This is a corollary to the first item. As the season goes on, we tend to see a great deal of repetition in the Q&A posts. This repetition clutters the forum and makes it harder to find the real precedent-setting posts in here. If everyone followed items 1 and 2 before posting, we would see a significant reduction in the number of posts, which makes it much easier to follow item 2!
  1. Quote the applicable criterion from the latest version of the Guide to Judging in your question.
  • Often, you'll find that by quoting the criterion, you'll answer your own question. Similarly, if your question can be answered by a direct quote from the Guide to Judging, that is all that we will answer it with - so, you can save yourself the time and waiting by checking the Guide to Judging.
  1. Make a separate post for each question.
  • If you have three questions on three separate topics, please, make three separate posts. This makes it easier for us to tag and search for specific topics. Of course, if you have multiple questions that are all highly related, then feel free to ask them all as part of one post.
  1. Use specific and appropriate question titles.
  • The more specific your question title, the easier it is for people who are searching to find relevant posts.
  • "Notebook?" or "I have a question" are all very poor titles. "Must the Design Notebook be bound?" or "Is there a rubric for the Innovate award?" are all better titles.
  1. Questions will (mostly) be answered in the order they were received.
  • We know that your question is important to you, and you want the answer as soon as possible. Most questions submitted by Tuesday evening will be answered on or before Friday of the same week. Most questions that are submitted on Thursday or Friday will be answered on or before Friday of the following week.
  • However, some questions may take additional time to review internally, and responses may take longer during high-volume times of year. In order to ensure the consistent quality of all answers, there are no guarantees that questions will be answered before a given date. Therefore, if you need an answer before your competition, we would advise posting it 1-2 weeks in advance, not the night before, to ensure a higher likelihood of a response.
  1. This system is the only source for official clarifications on judged awards.
  • Please do not privately contact the Competition Judging Committee to ask for clarifications. They will simply point you to this Q&A or ignore the inquiry entirely. Please do not ask questions via email, social media, or forum private messages, etc.
  • For comments, ideas, or questions that are related to Judging but may fall outside the scope of this Q&A, please email [email protected].