General Definitions

Adult – Anyone who is not a Student or another defined term (e.g., Head Referee). 

Alliance – A pre-assigned grouping of two (2) Teams that are paired together during a given Teamwork Challenge. 

Alliance Score – Points scored in a Teamwork Challenge Match that are awarded to both Teams. 

Disablement – A penalty applied to a Team for a safety Violation. During Disablement, a Team is no longer allowed to operate their Robot, and the Drivers will be asked to place their Controller on the ground. A Disablement is not the same as a Disqualification. 

Disqualification – A penalty applied to a Team for a rule violation (see <T8> for more details). If a Team receives a Disqualification in a Match, the Head Referee will notify the Team of their Violation at the end of the Match. At the Head Referee’s discretion, repeated Violations and/or Disqualifications for a single Team may lead to its Disqualification for the entire event. 

Driver – A Student Team member who stands in the Driver Station and is responsible for operating and controlling that Team’s Robot. Up to two Team members may fulfill this role in a given Match (see <G8>). 

Driver Station – The region behind the Field where the Drivers must remain during their Match unless legally interacting with their Robot. The Driver Station is represented by the orange line in Figures O-1 and O-2. 

Drive Team Members - The two Drivers and one Loader who participate in a given Match as representatives of their Team. 

Field – The entire playing Field, being six (6) field tiles wide by eight (8) field tiles long (totaling forty-eight (48) field tiles), including the Field Perimeter. 

Field Element – The Field Perimeter, Floor, PVC pipes, and VEX IQ elements which comprise and/or are attached to the Field. 

Field Perimeter – The outer part of the Field, made up of four (4) outside corners and twenty-four (24) straight sections.

Floor – The interior flat part of the playing Field, made up of the forty-eight (48) field tiles that are within the Field Perimeter. 

Game Design Committee (GDC) –  The creators of VIQRC Rapid Relay, and authors of this Game Manual. The GDC is the only official source for rules clarifications and Q&A responses; see Section 1.

License Plate – A physical component on the Robot that displays the Team’s VEX IQ Robotics Competition number. The License Plate must have a length and height of 3.5” x 1.5” (88.9mm x 38.1mm) and must not exceed a width of 0.25” (6.35mm) per <R9>.

Loader – The Student(s) on the Team who Load Balls into the Field during a Match. An Adult cannot be a Loader on a Team. Loaders cannot also be a Driver in the same Teamwork Challenge Match (see <G11> and <RSC4>).

Match – A set time period, consisting of Autonomous Periods and/or Driver Controlled Periods, during which Teams play a defined version of Rapid Relay to earn points. See Section 3. 

• Autonomous Period – A time period during which Robots operate and react only to sensor inputs and/or commands pre-programmed by the Students into the Robot control system. 
• Driver Controlled Period – A time period during which Drivers operate their Robot. 

Robot – A machine that has passed inspection, designed to execute one or more tasks autonomously and/or by remote control from a human operator. 

Student – Anyone born after May 1, 2009 (i.e., who will be 15 or younger at VEX Worlds 2025). Eligibility may also be granted based on a disability that has delayed education by at least one year. Students are the individuals who design, build, repair, and program the Robot with minimal Adult assistance. 

• Elementary School Student – Any Student born after May 1, 2012 (i.e., who will be 12 or younger at VEX Worlds 2025). Elementary School Students may “play up” and compete as Middle School Students. 
• Middle School Student – Any eligible Student that is not an Elementary School Student.7 

Team – Two or more Students make up a Team.

• A Team is classified as an Elementary School Team if all members are Elementary School Students. 
• A Team is classified as a Middle School Team if any member is a Middle School Student, or if the Team is made up of Elementary School Students who declare themselves as “Playing Up” as Middle School Students by registering their Team as a Middle School Team. 
• Once a Team has competed in an event as a Middle School Team, that Team may not change back to a Elementary School Team for the remainder of the season.
• Teams may be associated with schools, community/youth organizations, or a group of neighbor hood Students. 

In the context of this Game Manual, Teams contain three types of Student roles related to Robot build, design, and coding. See <G2> and <G4> for more information. Adults may not fulfill any of these roles.

• Builder – The Student(s) on the Team who assemble(s) the Robot. An Adult cannot be a Builder on a Team. Adults are permitted to teach the Builder(s) associated concepts, but may never work on the Robot without the Builder(s) present and actively participating. 
• Coder – The Student(s) on the Team who write(s) the computer code that is downloaded onto the Robot. An Adult cannot be a Coder on a Team. Adults are permitted to teach the Coder(s) associated concepts, but may never work on the code that goes on the Robot without the Coder(s) present and actively participating. 
• Designer – The Student(s) on the Team who design(s) the Robot to be built for competition. An Adult cannot be a Designer on a Team. Adults are permitted to teach the Designer(s) associated concepts, but may never work on the design of the Robot without the Designer(s) present and actively participating. 

Violation – The act of breaking a rule in the Game Manual.

• Minor Violation – A Violation which does not result in a Disqualification.
  • Accidental, momentary, or otherwise non-Score Affecting Violations are usually Minor Violations.
  • Minor Violations usually result in a verbal warning from the Head Referee during the Match, which should serve to inform the Team that a rule is being Violated before it escalates to a Major Violation. 

• Major Violation – A Violation which results in a Disqualification.
  • Unless otherwise noted in a rule, all Score Affecting Violations are Major Violations.
  • If noted in the rule, egregious, intentional, or strategic Violations may also be Major Violations.
  • Multiple Minor Violations within a Match or tournament may escalate to a Major Violation at the Head Referee’s discretion. 

• Score Affecting – A Violation which improves an Alliance’s score at the end of a Match.
  • Multiple Violations within a Match can cumulatively become Score Affecting.
  • When evaluating whether a Violation was Score Affecting, Head Referees will focus primarily on any Robot actions that were directly related to the Violation.
  • Determining whether a Violation was Score Affecting can only be done once the Match is complete and the scores have been calculated. 

Some rules include Violation Notes in red italicized text to denote special circumstances or provide additional clarifications. If no Violation Notes are found in a given rule, then it should be assumed that the above “default” definitions apply. 

To determine whether a Violation may have been Score Affecting, check whether the Violation directly contributed to increasing the score of the Match. If it did not increase the Alliance’s score, then the Violation was not Score Affecting, and it was very likely a Minor Violation.

See the following flowchart for more information.

Figure V-1: The process for determining Violations.