2020-2021 Change Up Competition
The competition this year that all VEX robotics teams will be playing is Change Up. The game involves manipulating the game objects to move balls in and out of towers. Four teams are organized into two color alliances, red and blue. If an alliance manages to place their color ball at the top of the stack within the tower, that color alliance wins the tower. If three towers are won by an alliance in a line, then the alliance wins the row, sort of like a 3-D tic-tac-toe. Towers are won and lost in a fast paced gameplay, so it is important to pay attention and strategize with alliance partners to win.
Game Details
Played on a 12' x 12' field, there are 9 goals on the field with 16 balls of each color to match the color alliances of red and blue. Alliances will have a 15 second autonomous period in which the teams will attempt to score with only the programming to guide the robot. After the autonomous period is finished and scored, the players will enter the 1 minute and 45 second driver-controlled period, where drivers will control robots in order to score. Points are scored per alliance, so the alliance with the highest score at the end of the match wins.
Scoring
Each ball placed in a tower counts for 1 point for the corresponding colored alliance. An alliance owns a tower when the highest ball scored in the tower matches the color of the alliance. If an alliance owns three towers in a row, in any direction, then that alliance scores 6 bonus points. At the end of the autonomous period, the alliance with the most points scored wins 6 points, which will be added at the end of the match. If there is a tie at the end of the autonomous period, both alliances win 3 points. If a team owns all three towers in the home row, which is the three towers on the side of the board that have the alliance tiles, then that alliance receives 1 Win Point.
Resources
To find more in-depth explanation or to examine the rules, use these resources.