Competition

Let's start with what you probably care about the most - the structure of the game!  The game itself is typically composed of three sections: autonomous period, tele-op, and endgame.  Let's explore each of these in a bit more detail.

Autonomous period, or "auton" is the first fifteen seconds of the game.  During this time, drivers are entirely forbidden to touch their controls; everything is entirely programmed.  The bots move according to their pre-programmed actions, which typically means picking up a ball and firing and or moving a set amount.  Anything scored during autonomous is usually worth a lot more than anything scored for the rest of the match.

Tele-op is the bulk of the match.  During this time, bots will attempt to score, defend against other bots, and otherwise compete.  A bell sound signals the start of tele-op, and drivers are allowed to directly pilot the bots now (hence the name).  

Endgame is the last 30 seconds of the game.  During endgame, bots are usually directed to climb some sort of bar or set of bars for points and ranking points.  It is still legal to score during this time, and bots will not receive a penalty for not hanging, so it is often a tactical decision to continue scoring for a time in order to receive more ranking points or points than generally might have been possible.  In order to hang, drivers usually move the bot into place beneath the bar or bars in question, pressing a pre-programmed button and causing the bot to extend itself up to the bar or hanging point.

A game usually lasts two minutes, with some variation depending on the year.  This means there is room for many different matches within a single day, so an event usually consists of a great many individual games.

Ranking Points VS Points

The two terms "points" and "ranking points" can prove quite confusing at first.  When it comes down to it, points are the score that it requires to win an individual match.  You usually earn points for each sequential bar climbed during endgame or each ball scored during the whole game.  The alliance with the most points wins the match.  You earn a set number of ranking points for achieving checkpoints like winning a match, scoring at least a set number of balls across the whole match, or getting at least a set number of points on hang, or other such like.  There is usually only the opportunity to gain a handful of ranking points each game, and they are what determines how you are ranked in terms of other teams.  If a team is of high enough ranking, then it becomes alliance captain, which is elaborated upon further under the alliance selection heading.

Set up, Pit scouting, and Practice Rounds

There is a defined structure for robotics events (which is what an individual competition is called).  Events span from around one to three days, and they begins with set up, pit scouting, and practice rounds.  

After the team travels to the predetermined location, we will set up in the pit, which is the location that our bot is stored and worked on throughout the event.  Once all the teams mostly settle in, then we begin with pit scouting.  This is where we and other teams send out groups to interview students from each team and gather general information about each team's bot and individual skills, such as whether they prefer to be more defensive or offensive or if they have a tank or swerve drive.  This information can help us know what teams we would pick in alliance selections and how we can best strategize with them in the future.

While pit scouting is going on, we then move on to practice rounds.  These are informal and optional games where bots can get used to the field and test out any features they may find necessary.  These typically last for the first half of the first day of competition.

Qualification Rounds

The second half of that day is usually where qualification rounds begin.  If you are appearing as a spectator, this is what you probably want to see.  If you are appearing at the event to watch a particular team compete, you can see what times their matches are on thebluealliance.com, either under that team's information or the event name itself (This is the site we use as well - it's a good one to remember or get as an app on your phone!).

Qualification rounds are randomly generated seeds where three-team alliances are put on either the "red alliance" or the "blue alliance."  Blue allianced teams will then compete against red allianced teams and vice-versa for that particular game.  You can always tell what alliance a team is on from the colors of their bumper, which will always match whatever particular alliance they are on.  Note: alliances change for every qualification round, and alliance colors can change accordingly.  Just because a team is on blue alliance one round doesn't mean they will be the same on the next round.  

The qualification round period lasts for the majority of the event itself, and each team usually is involved in 12 qualification rounds spread throughout that time.  The second day opens early with qualification rounds, and they continue for the rest of the day.  Depending on how many teams there are and how many breaks occur in-between, qualification rounds can also extend into the next day for a certain amount of time, typically until about lunchtime.  Afterwards, alliance selection begins.

Alliance Selection

Alliance selection determines what alliances the teams will each have for the elimination rounds, which are how the winning teams of the event are found.  If you are appearing to spectate a particular team, it is important to remember that only a set number of teams can continue on to the elimination rounds with an alliance, so your team may or may not be chosen and proceed onto the next part of the event.  

Each team elects one member of their team to be their team representative.  The leading teams' team representatives will then become alliance captains.  Depending on the event itself, there will be a set number of possible alliance captains, which will be chosen in order from the top teams in terms of ranking points.  These alliance captains then have the ability to choose other teams to be on their alliance for elimination rounds.  As the specific rules for alliance selection are explained at matches and can vary from year to year, we will not elaborate further on precisely how they are chosen.  But alliance captains will make their selection, and eventually all slots will be filled and alliances chosen.  The remaining teams which were not chosen can remain in case one of the teams on an alliance does not or cannot make an appearance during competition, during which one of the remaining teams may fill its place.  Otherwise, the remaining teams will not be able to compete in elimination rounds and will simply watch the remainder of the competition in anticipation of the final awards segment.

Elimination Rounds

For the remainder of the competition, alliances will face off against one another in what can be considered a typical bracket.  Unlike a typical bracket, however, each alliance must win two out of three matches against their opposing in order to proceed.

Elimination rounds usually take place on the final event day and take much less time than the qualification rounds overall.  If an alliance is beaten, it is eliminated out of the competition and the winning alliance proceeds.  The rounds end once a final alliance is deemed winner.

Awards

There are multiple awards which can be won in an event and distributed to teams after elimination rounds conclude.  Throughout the competition, judges for the awards can be found in the pits interviewing students to see what team is worthy of what award.  Engineering innovation is just one example of such awards, given to a team whose design is deemed exemplary.

The most prestigious award in robotics is the Chairman's Award, and a specific essay and presentation, both centered around the community impact of a team, are given to judges by teams which choose to compete.  The winning team of this particular award automatically goes to the state competition, and the Chairman's Award winner(s) at the state competition automatically go to the world competition.