VEX Students Start Here

Joining a VEX IQ Robotics Competition (VIQRC) or VEX V5 Robotics Competition (V5RC) team means more than building and driving a robot. You are joining a team of collaborative problem solvers! Together, you will need to read and understand the game rules, design a robot and game strategy, code your robot, and maintain an engineering notebook. VEX Robotics Competitions give students the opportunity to design, build, code, and compete with robots in an annual game challenge. Each season introduces a new game with its own field, scoring objects, rules, strategies, and engineering challenges.

Throughout the season, you will do your part to help your team have the best possible experience! This includes helping to build and maintain a positive team culture, as well as participating at competition events.

This article will help you understand what is expected of you as a team member and where to find help when you need it. See the Helpful Resources section at the bottom of the article for quick access to useful links.

Start with the Game Manual

The game manual is the official source for the rules of each year's game. It explains how the game is played, how points are scored, what robots can and cannot do, what happens at events, and more. Understanding the rules is the responsibility of all team members. This ensures everyone can contribute to robot design, game strategy, and coding, regardless of assigned team roles.

Use the game manual throughout the season to find answers to questions. Game manuals are updated at various times during the season, so teams should always check that they are using the latest version.

• Access this year's VIQRC Game Manual
• Access this year's V5RC Game Manual

Competition is Student-Centered

In competitions, being student-centered is central to the VEX experience. You are expected to do the work of the team, including designing, building, coding, driving, strategizing, documenting, and presenting your learning. Coaches, mentors, and parents are there to support you — but not to do the work for you. For example, adults can ask guiding questions to help team members figure out a robot modification. Adults cannot fix the robot, write the code, make design decisions, or direct the team's strategy during a competition. This helps ensure that the robot and the team's success truly represent the team's learning, effort, and ownership.

Each team is unique and needs to find the ways of working together that work best for them. The resources and information in this article will help you get started as you figure out your team roles, routines, and culture.

Communication Comes First

Respectful communication is key to having a successful team. This includes communication within the team as well as with those at an event, such as other teams, coaches, judges, referees, and adult volunteers. 

Not everyone on your team will always agree, and that is okay. However, to have a successful team, you must learn to disagree respectfully. This means engaging in collaborative decision-making to come to agreement on solutions. This video can help your team get started.

Take time to think about how you will explain your ideas to others, not just what those ideas are. Communicating engineering, coding, and strategy ideas with others requires clarity and precision. The clearer you are, the better you can avoid confusion and potential disagreements.

Section G1 of the Game Manual has suggestions about how to communicate successfully during a match.

Learn from Your Mistakes

Your team's robot design, coding projects, and game strategy are always going to be a work in progress. This means you will try an idea, test it, document it, and improve on it. Being persistent is important when you are working iteratively in this way. When your team encounters a challenge, you can best support your teammates by treating the problem as a learning opportunity. Rather than becoming overwhelmed by frustration, help the team identify possible solutions and try them one at a time.

• Create a team culture where everyone feels comfortable suggesting ideas. A teammate may think of a solution that others had not considered, and an idea that does not work can still help the team understand the problem more clearly.
• Be open to everyone’s ideas. You may not know whether something will work until your team tests it.
• Listen actively and ask questions when others are talking. For example, you might ask:
  • What problem would this solve?
  • How could we test that?
  • How much time would we need?
  • What are the possible benefits?
  • What challenges might we run into?
• Use positive, respectful language. Rather than dismissing an idea as not worth trying, point out the pros and cons in a matter-of-fact way. All ideas have pros and cons, and discussing them helps the team make thoughtful decisions.

A strong team learns together, adjusts together, and keeps moving forward. When your team chooses an idea to test, focus on what the test shows rather than who suggested the idea. This helps everyone stay focused on improving the robot, code, or strategy instead of worrying about being right or wrong.

• This article can help you get started with your engineering notebook, a fundamental tool for communicating your team's iterative process.

Organize with Team Roles

Team roles help your team divide up work and get things done efficiently. However, it is important to remember that roles are responsibilities, not ownership. A coder can suggest a design idea. A builder can help scout. A driver can contribute to the engineering notebook. Thinking flexibly about team roles can encourage greater participation within the team and lead to better ideas and higher scores!

• Appendix D in the Game Manual describes typical team roles. You can use these and adjust as needed for your team.
• Try out different roles on the team before choosing a primary role. You may find that you like doing both driving and coding, so you can play a part in multiple roles. 
• No matter what your role is, make sure you are communicating with the rest of your team so everyone is on the same page about your robot and your progress.

Learn Through Scouting

Scouting is when you study other teams' strategies and robot designs to learn more about the game. Scouting is not copying or stealing ideas from other teams, but rather learning from what you observe and discuss and using that information to make thoughtful decisions for your own team. By watching matches and talking with teams, you can notice different strategies, robot strengths, common challenges, and creative approaches to solving game challenges.

• Scouting helps your team understand the competition environment. Use what you learn from scouting to reflect on your own robot and strategy and identify ways to improve. 
• Look for your alliance partners and other teams. Scouting happens with alliance partners when planning for a match, and also when visiting other teams in the pits.
• Practice effective communication when scouting. Prepare specific questions you want to answer while scouting so you can do so in an intentional and focused way. 

Helpful Resources

Being part of a VIQRC or V5RC team is an opportunity to learn, contribute, and grow with others. Your team will face challenges throughout the season, but each challenge is a chance to practice communication, collaboration, flexible thinking, and persistence.

You do not need to know everything right away. Start by understanding the game, asking questions, listening to your teammates, testing ideas, and using VEX resources when you need help. As you build, code, drive, scout, and document your work, remember that every team member has something valuable to contribute.

A successful season is not measured only by high scores or winning awards. It is also measured by how your team works together, learns from mistakes, supports one another, and improves over time. By doing your part and supporting your teammates, you can help create a season that is successful, meaningful, and fun.