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

Usage Guidelines All Questions

2923: Touching blocks fully under enclosed section of long goal

Steve Clark
17-Nov-2025

<SG10>

Many teams have deployed an arm that reaches into the long goal as they drive toward the enclosed portion of the goal to score/descore blocks.

  1. Some of these arms have an angled insert so they definitely touch a block that is within the fully enclosed portion of the long goal. (see picture)

  2. Even a perfectly vertical insert, when they come to the end of the open part while pushing a block, would touch a block that is fully enclosed. (see picture, not a great angle of the photo, but the block is completely in the enclose section while be touched by a vertical insert at the end of the open portion of the long goal).

  3. Many of these robots are driving fast which would cause the vertical insert to touch a block in the enclosed portion as the robots crash hard into the enclosed portion and the momentum causes it to rock backwards.

All three of these interactions seem to violate "<SG10> Don’t reach inside enclosed sections of Goals. Robots are not permitted to directly contact Blocks that are fully within enclosed sections of Long Goals." Is this interpretation correct?

If any or all of these are a violation, following the violation flow chart, how do we determine if this is match affecting?

[Example Image]

[Example Image]

SG10  
Answered by committee
20-Nov-2025

Hi, Steve, and thanks for this question!

Technically, if a Robot is touching a block that's fully inside the closed part of a long goal and the Head Referee knows it, it's an <SG10> Violation. That said, as you've noted this is often a quick action and a difficult judgment call. If a Head Referee isn't certain that a Robot has contacted Blocks inside the Goal, and no Scoring Objects moved in a way that makes it clear that a Violation has occurred (i.e., their action didn't move Blocks inside the closed part of the Long Goal), it can probably be ignored. The Head Referee should, however, alert the Team to the close call so they can modify their game play to avoid later Violations.

Regarding how to determine whether a Violation was Match Affecting, that's addressed in bold near the bottom of our response to Q&A 2879.