Strategist

As a Strategist for a VEX IQ Robotics Competition team, your primary focus is on game planning, scouting, and teamwork to maximize your alliance's score.

1. The Student-Centered Strategy Rule

Like all roles on a team, the work of a Strategist must be entirely student-led.

• Student Ownership: All final gameplay and match strategies must be the independent work of the students on the team.

• Adult Boundaries: While adults can teach you general strategic concepts (like how to analyze a game), they are prohibited from creating or dictating your actual match strategies.

• Defending Your Ideas: You must be prepared to demonstrate and explain your strategies to judges and event staff to prove they represent your own team's understanding and skill.

• One Team Limit: You may only serve as a Strategist (or fill any other role) for one team per competition season.

2. Core Strategic Responsibilities

The Strategist’s job involves both pre-match research and real-time alliance coordination.

• Scouting: You should assess the performance and capabilities of other teams at an event. Understanding what other robots can do (e.g., "Can they reach the L4 Goal?" or "Are they small enough for the shortcuts?") helps you plan better alliances.

• Alliance Cooperation: In Teamwork Matches, your team is paired with another to form an Alliance. You must work together to develop a plan that uses the strengths of both robots to score as many points as possible.

• Collaborative Brainstorming: You can collaborate with other teams on general game analysis and brainstorming, but your final solutions must be your own work.

3. Understanding Game Mechanics for "Level Up"

To create a winning plan, you must deeply understand the rules and scoring of the current game.

• The One-Object Rule: Robots can only possess or "plow" one Bean Bag at a time. Strategies should focus on fast cycles (grabbing, moving, and scoring) rather than hoarding many objects.

• Scoring Priorities: You must decide which goals to prioritize based on time and difficulty. Points range from 1 point (Floor Goal) to 16 points (L4 Goal).

• Pathing Choices: You must decide when to take the shorter, narrower paths (which require a small robot) and when to take longer, more open paths.

• Match Stop Time: In Skills Matches or tiebreaker Finals Matches, you might choose to end a match early to record a "Skills Stop Time," which serves as a tiebreaker for rankings.

4. Strategic Conduct and Rules

There are strict rules about how you interact with your alliance partner and the referees.

• Fair Play: It is not okay to ask an alliance partner to sit in a corner or intentionally play poorly. You must always try to cooperatively solve the game.

• No Outside Directions: During a match, anyone who is not a Drive Team Member is prohibited from providing directions or advice to the drivers. While spectators can provide "cheerful encouragement," they cannot coach from the sidelines.

• Appealing Rulings: If you are also a Drive Team Member, you are permitted to immediately appeal a referee's ruling after a match, but you must do so in a respectful manner.

By mastering these rules and focusing on how to best work with your partners, you can lead your team to a more competitive season.