Rules Quick Start

This quick start highlights the rules you need first. The complete Competition Rules control if this summary leaves out a detail.

Know Your Division

• Discovery: Grade 6 and below. You may compete in Discovery or play up in Expedition. Before a match, you may remove any game pieces from the field.
• Expedition: Open to any K–12 student. Grades 7-12 may not play down into Discovery.

Your team gets five matches. Your best four scores are added for your ranking, so one low score is dropped. Each match has 150 seconds of active play.

Choose Missions Before the Match

Tell the judge which missions you plan to attempt. Start with a few reliable missions, then add harder ones as your robot improves. A mission may have Base, Bonus, and Advanced Bonus stages; you must earn each stage before the next becomes eligible.

• Live Judged: The judge must see the action happen.
• Final Position Judged: The judge checks the field when time expires.

One action or final arrangement may score multiple missions unless a specific rule says otherwise. Mission-specific rules override general definitions.

Make Your Robot Legal

You may use up to two fully autonomous robots. At the start, every robot and independent structure must fit completely inside a starting box’s vertical space and be no taller than 15 inches. Do not start while holding or controlling a game object. Robots may expand after the match begins. You may place no more than two detached independent structures on the field; a robot must deploy them, and they cannot contain a controller, battery, or powered actuator.

After the match starts, do not control or communicate with your robot. Change code only between matches. Build safely: the Head Judge can prohibit unsafe equipment.

Recover Carefully

• Discovery Touch: Unlimited, but the match clock keeps running and each Touch reduces the final score by 5%. Return the robot fully to a legal starting position.
• Expedition Timeout: Your team has two Timeout Cards for the entire tournament. The clock stops. A scoring object controlled by the robot is removed and cannot score for the rest of that match.

During either recovery, do not move field pieces for advantage or change your software.

Finish and Check the Score

At 150 seconds, all robot movement and scoring stop immediately. Leave the field unchanged while the judge checks final-position missions. Review the recorded score before the field is reset. A student representative or coach may request one immediate scoring review for a scoring, data-entry, or rule-interpretation error.

Compete honestly, respect people and equipment, and ask the Head Judge when a rule is unclear.