Event Types

Tournaments – Tournaments are events that have Qualification and Elimination Matches for Aerial Drone Competitions. Tournaments may or may not have judging.

Leagues – Leagues are events that have Ranking Sessions for teams to play Qualifying Matches, and then a League Finals Session to determine the League Champions. Ranking Sessions are a way for a Tournament to be scheduled over multiple days at different venues, with different teams participating in each of those venues. Leagues may or may not have judging. 

Event Criteria

For events (Tournaments or Leagues) to be official and have results posted on RobotEvents.com, they must meet the following criteria.

Registration & Event Requirements

1. Events must be listed as a Tournament or a League with online registration posted on RobotEvents.com. All attending teams must be registered and paid on RobotEvents.com for the current season.
2. Official events must follow the rules and guidelines in these documents and manuals:
   • Game Manual including Inspection and Event guidelines
   • Judge Guide including appendices and judging rubrics
   • Referee Guide
   • Commitment to Event Excellence
   • Code of Conduct and Student-Centered Policy
3. Events must have at least 8 registered teams. League ranking sessions may have less than 8 teams participating if the League has 8 registered teams.
4. Events must have a minimum of 4 Qualification Matches per Team. 
   • The suggested number of Qualification Matches per Team for a tournament is 6.
   • The suggested number of Qualification Matches per Team for a championship is 8-10.
5. Finalized Tournament Manager results (Tournament and League Final Sessions) must be uploaded/finalized within 48 hours of event completion.
6. Events must offer the opportunity for teams to run Autonomous Flight Skills Challenges.

Awards & Judging

1. Events that offer judging must offer the Excellence Award, Flight Operations Award and Judges Award. Events that do not offer judging will be limited to offering non-judged awards, such as Tournament Champions and Autonomous Flight Skills Champion.
2. If judged awards are offered, all teams must be given the opportunity to be interviewed for judged awards, and additionally all official award descriptions, criteria and rubrics must be followed.

Dates and Deadlines

Official events must abide by the following dates and deadlines:

1. Events must occur between October 1, 2022 and March 19, 2023.
2. Posting Deadline: Events must be approved by December 1, 2022.  The REC Foundation Aerial Drone Competition Program Manager may waive this requirement when needed.

Aerial Drone Competition Championship

The following is the list of Aerial Drone Competition Championships for the Mission 2023: Blackout season. 

• Additional Championship events may be added as needed.
• Teams will be able to register for ONE Championship event.  Choose carefully, once registered, teams will NOT be allowed to change to another location.
• Teams that register for an Aerial Drone Championship, on or before February 28, 2023, will have four weeks to register and pay by credit card, check or PO for the Championship event.   
• Teams that register on or after March 1, 2023, will have two weeks to register and pay by credit card, check or PO for the Championship event.
• Teams that do not pay by the above deadlines, may be moved to the waiting list of the event at the event partner’s discretion.

Aerial Drone Competition Championship Qualification

There are three ways for teams to attend Championship events: 

1. Qualifying Award: Winning a qualifying judged or performance-based award at an official event.
2. Waitlist: If there is remaining capacity, teams may be invited from the waitlist. 
3. Online Challenges: Some online challenge winners will earn invitations to an Aerial Drone Championship.  See the Online Challenge Website for details. 

Spots to Aerial Drone Competition Championship Events

Official Tournaments and Leagues with at least 8 registered teams will be assigned spots as shown below. Additional spots may be allocated once we announce the final/updated list on January 6, 2023.  

Aerial Drone Competition Spot Levels (With Judging)

Aerial Drone Competition Spot Levels (Without Judging)

This document will be reviewed and updated on January 6, 2023. At that time additional spots may be added to past and future events based on the number of registered Aerial Drone Competition Teams and Events that are in RobotEvents.  

From time to time, the Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation may make an exception to one of these criteria to better support a growing State/Province/Region/Nation.

Future Plans: Spots to Aerial Drone Competition Championship Events

The following is a DRAFT. We are sharing this with our community so you can see where our goals are for the season.  

Based on the information we have at this time (October 2022), we anticipate that about 300 teams will be invited to participate in Aerial Drone Championship Events and we will send invitations to teams based on the criteria below.

This is an example of how spots may be divided. Once the number of teams and events is finalized for the season. This chart will be updated with the final numbers for the season. The current values are only projections based on current estimates for the season.

Draft: Aerial Drone Competition Spot Levels (With Judging)

This will be reviewed and updated on January 6, 2023.  At this time additional spots may be added to past and future events based on the number of registered Aerial Drone Competition Teams and Events that are in RobotEvents.  

From time to time, the Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation may make an exception to one of these criteria to better support a growing State/Province/Region/Nation.

Contact

Questions? Reach out to drones@roboticseducation.org.