2025 Judged Awards

Programming Award

Celebrates an innovative or unique feature or suite of programming related features which improves the strategic value of the team’s actions on the field.

Guidelines

• The feature(s) are practical and tackle the game’s challenges.
• Functional robot on field which reasonably matches team’s explanation.
• Explanation of programming is presented clearly.
• Teams may wish to describe the following:

• Consistency in robot functions during the teleoperated and autonomous periods.
• Complex functionality achieved by elegant code.
• Use of sensors to enable useful functionality.
• An autonomous routine that is able to perform actions which improve the strategic value of the team on field.

Quality Award

Celebrates a robot that was designed for robustness and performs tasks reliably.

Guidelines

• Overall complexity of the machine and streamlined design.
• Team is able to explain their design process through visual aids or supporting documentation.
• The robot is built so that it is successful in reaching its team’s goals and is strategically performant on the field.
• Great looking bot!

• Attention to detail in manufactured parts.
• Clean wiring which enables quick debugging.

Most Improved

Celebrates a team that has improved considerably since the end of the official season.

Guidelines

• Demonstrated extreme improvement in robot performance and/or overall collaboration.
• Team is able to clearly speak about how they or their robot have improved since the last competition they attended.
• Enhanced existing components.
• Demonstrated working collaboratively.

Big Wave

Celebrates a team’s measurable impact on its participants, school, and community at-large through science, technology, engineering, art, and math.

Guidelines

• Explanation of efforts made or planned to improve team sustainability, with an emphasis on the last three (3) years (2023-2025).
• Concise and well-articulated team goals related to entrepreneurship, sustainability, or community impact, with an emphasis on the last three (3) years (2023-2025).
• Team demonstrates professionalism and kindness and acts as a role model for other teams to emulate.
• Optional one-page document offers evidence of the team's entrepreneurship, sustainability, or community impact achievements.

Scouting Award

Celebrates a team with innovative and high quality scouting methods that improve the team’s competitive advantage.

Guidelines

• Team is able to describe and demonstrate how they scout for events, apply that information to match play and alliance selection, and the impact of scouting on their team.
• Team articulates improvements and innovations they are trying for the first time at this event and/or continuous efforts to improve systems used throughout the 2025 season.

Judges’ Award

During the course of the competition, the judging panel may decide a team’s unique efforts, performance, or dynamics merit recognition but do not fit into one of the pre-defined award categories.

Guidelines

• This team is often considered for, and comes close to earning, multiple other awards.
• A unique attribute of the team or machine has caught the Judges’ attention, meriting special recognition.

Change Log

7/14/2025 - Initial release.