Official Q&A: VEX V5 Robotics Competition 2025-2026: Push Back

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During robot skills matches teams often opt to end their skills match early if continuing may damage their robot or there’s a problem with a sensor that would make continuing pointless (literally and figuratively).

At a recent event, a field tech asked the Event Partner to inform teams they could end their match early ONLY if they had informed the scorekeeper they would be recording a Skills Stop Time. The field tech wanted to reduce the number of early-aborted matches logged in the field’s V5 Robot Brain, to make it easier for himself to determine if aborted matches were due to field faults. The Event Partner instructed that teams had to allow the timer (and thus their robots due to the method of field control being used at the event) to continue if they had not discussed a Skills Stop Time in advance. This was frustrating to teams and could have resulted in damage to students’ robots, particularly if autonomous codes went awry. After discussion with a Head Referee, the decision was reversed and teams were again allowed to end their matches early, though a Skills Stop Time was only recorded if they’d discussed it in advance with the Scorekeeper at the field, as described in <RSC4>.

Can teams elect to end a Skills Match early for a reason other than recording a Skills Stop Time or does this scenario fall under <T4> The Event Partner has ultimate authority regarding all non-gameplay decisions during an event?