Updated August 20, 2024
Introduction
Both teams and events must meet the criteria in this guide for qualification into an Aerial Drone Competition Regional Championship. Events that do not follow the criteria will not be considered “official" and will not have qualifying spots and/or the results will not be uploaded to RobotEvents.com. Official Qualifying Events must follow the rules and guidelines in the following documents:
- Current Competition Manual
- Current Competition Manual Q&A responses
- Guide to Judging
- Referee Guide
- Commitment to Event Excellence
- Code of Conduct
- Student-Centered Policy
If you have any questions regarding the Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation Qualifying Criteria, contact your Regional Support Manager (RSM). This document will have scheduled updates on or before January 17, 2025, and may have unscheduled updates during the season as needed.
Note: From time to time, the REC Foundation may make an exception to criteria to better support a growing Region. For more information, please contact your RSM here.
New this season
- Event Partners must complete the REC Foundation Aerial Drone Competition Event Partner Certification.
- Head Referees must complete the REC Foundation Aerial Drone Competition Head Referee Certification.
- Judge Advisors must complete the REC Foundation Aerial Drone Competition Judge Advisor Certification.
- All Head Referees and Judge Advisors must be listed in RobotEvents.
- The event must meet the minimum organizational requirements:
- Event must have at least 6 organizations registered -OR-
- No one organization may have more than 33% of the total number of registered teams.
- Each Event Partner is permitted to host exactly one Qualifying Tournament without organizational or team percentage registration restrictions after they host another qualifying tournament of equal or greater size that follows all registration restrictions. These Tournaments are referred to as Invitational events.
Definitions
Region: Geographic area (partial state, State, Province, Country, etc.)
Event Region: One or more Regions that have a common Regional Championship event
Regional Championship: Culminating event for teams in a specified Event Region
Event Regions
Teams are assigned into Event Regions based on geography and the density of teams in that area.
| Event Region | Included US and Canada Regions |
| Northeast |
USA: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia Canada: Quebec, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia |
| North Central |
USA: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin Canada: Manitoba, Ontario, Nunavut |
| Southeast | Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee |
| South Central | Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas |
| West |
USA: Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming Canada: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Yukon Territory, Northwest Territories |
| International | Coming soon |
The REC Foundation is piloting the Aerial Drone Competition in a few regions outside of the US/
Canada for the 2024-25 season. Additional Event Regions outside the US/Canada will be added to support these teams on a case-by-case basis.
Event Types
Tournaments
Tournaments are typically one- or two-day events where teams participate in four missions.
- Teamwork Mission
- Piloting Skills Mission
- Autonomous Flight Skills Mission
- Communications Mission
Leagues
Leagues typically have 4-6 ranking sessions, where Teamwork Mission qualifying matches and/or Skills Mission matches are scheduled over multiple days/weeks.
Teams participate in all four missions, and judging for the Communications Mission takes place during the final session.
- Teamwork Mission
- Piloting Skills Mission
- Autonomous Flight Skills Mission
- Communications Mission
Scrimmages
Scrimmages are for practice and are not official. Scrimmages do not qualify for a Regional Championship and results are not uploaded to RobotEvents. If an event does not meet the criteria for a Tournament or a League, the event will be considered a Scrimmage.
Event Class Types
Local Qualifying Event
Local qualifying events give teams opportunities to compete and to qualify for a Regional Championship.
Note: All qualifying events must be posted and approved on RobotEvents, use the integrated scoring function in Tournament Manager, and meet all qualifying event requirements.
Regional Championship
Teams can qualify from local qualifying events to their Regional Championship.
Other Event Class Types
The REC Foundation may provide additional event options to support and grow special initiatives. Registration and qualification information for these events will be shared on the event page. Examples of these special event classes are:
- JROTC National Championship
- Showcase Event
Local Qualifying Event Requirements
Missions and Awards
- Qualifying Events must offer all four Missions.
- Teamwork Mission
- Piloting Skills Mission
- Autonomous Flight Skills Mission
- Communications Mission
- Teamwork mission
- Must have a minimum of four Qualification Matches per team.
- The suggested number of Qualification Matches per team for a tournament is 6-8.
- Championship events must have 8-10 Qualification Matches per team.
- Skills Missions (Piloting and Autonomous Flight)
- All teams must be given the opportunity to run up to two Piloting Skills
- All Teams must be given the opportunity to have Two 5 minute sessions on the Autonomous Flight Skills Fields and run up to 3 matches within the 5 minute period.
- Communications Mission (Judging)
- All teams must be given the opportunity to be interviewed for judged awards, and all official award descriptions, criteria, and rubrics must be followed.
- At a League, Judging occurs during the final league session.
- All teams must be given the opportunity to be interviewed for judged awards, and all official award descriptions, criteria, and rubrics must be followed.
- Awards
- All Qualifying Events are required to offer the following three judged awards:
- All-Around Champion
- Communications Mission Champion
- Judges Award
- It is recommended that events with 18 or more teams offer all five judged awards:
- All-Around Champion
- Communications Mission Champion
- Coding Award
- Airmanship Award
- Judges Award
- Events must recognize two All-Around Champions and two Skills Missions Champions when the event is a blended event with at least 10 teams from each grade level registered two weeks prior to the event.
- Only one All-Around Champion and one Skills Missions Champion may be recognized within a single grade level at an event or at events that have fewer than 10 teams in a grade level.
- See the Guide to Judging for more information and additional judging guidelines.
- All Qualifying Events are required to offer the following three judged awards:
Additional Requirements
- Events must be listed as a Tournament or a League with online registration posted on RobotEvents.com.
- Events must have at least 12 registered teams.
- League ranking sessions may have less than 12 teams participating if the League has 12 registered teams.
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The event must meet the minimum organizational requirements.
- Event must have at least six organizations registered -OR-
-
No one organization may have more than 33% of the total number of registered teams.
- Note: Organizations are defined by the REC Foundation Organizational Policy. Having multiple team numbers or listing different names when a group meets together does not constitute a separate organization. However, each school in a district is recognized as a different organization and should have their own set of team numbers. For more information, visit the REC Foundation Organizational Policy page.
- The six organization / 33% criterion does not apply to Invitational events, Leagues or Showcase Events.
-
Each Event Partner is permitted to host exactly one Qualifying Tournament without organizational or team percentage registration restrictions after they host another qualifying tournament of equal or greater size that follows all registration restrictions. These Tournaments are referred to as Invitational events. Invitational events must be held within the same season as a tournament with organizational or team percentage registration restrictions.
- Note: This criterion does not apply to Leagues or JROTC only events. All Leagues and JROTC only events can be Invitational.
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Events may utilize the Waitlist, if additional capacity is available. Priority should be given to:
- Teams with the fewest event registrations.
- Teams offering to support the event with volunteers or equipment.
- The order in which teams waitlisted themselves.
- Teams must have a paid season registration in RobotEvents.com.
-
Team payments for the event must be completed before the event date.
- If teams pay the Event Partner directly or make trades for fields or volunteers in exchange for the event registration fees, the Event Partner should mark the team Paid on RobotEvents.com.
- In extreme cases, the Event Partner may work out alternative agreements with teams for payment.
- The Event Partner is not required to accept direct payments and can require all teams to pay through RobotEvents.com.
- The Event Partner is ultimately responsible for payment arrangements. If a team has not paid and is allowed to compete, the RECF cannot act on the Event Partner’s behalf to collect payment.
-
The Event Partner is permitted to move a team that is marked “unpaid” to the Waitlist after the payment deadline.
- A team payment status of “paid,” “PO processing,” or “PO received” is considered “paid” and can not be moved to the Waitlist except by coach request.
- Events outside of the United States must pay the Event Partner directly.
- Finalized Tournament Manager results (Tournament and League Final Sessions) must be uploaded/finalized within 48 hours of event completion.
Certification Requirements
- Event Partners must complete the Aerial Drone Competition Event Partner Certification. (Coming September 2024)
- Head Referees must complete the Aerial Drone Competition Head Referee Certification. (Coming September 2024)
- Judge Advisors must complete the Aerial Drone Competition Judge Advisor Certification. (Coming September 2024)
- All Head Referees and Judge Advisors must be listed in RobotEvents. An REC Foundation RSM reserves the right to remove an event’s qualification status if both fields are not completed with verified individuals three weeks prior to the event.
Local Qualifying Event Deadlines
- Qualifying events for the current season may begin on or after October 1, 2024.
- The deadline to host a qualifying event is four weeks before your Regional Championship.
- Qualifying events must be visible on RobotEvents.com for at least one week prior to opening for registration.
- Qualifying events must be posted on RobotEvents.com by December 1, 2024, and be open for registration at least eight weeks in advance of the event. An REC Foundation RSM may waive this requirement if needed.
- Events approved after December 1, 2024, may receive fewer spots to a Regional Championship based on availability.
Local Qualifying Event Spot Allocation
The Spot Allocation is the number of qualifying spots an event has been assigned to qualify teams to a Regional Championship. Spot Allocation is dependent on:
- Capacity of the Regional Championship.
- Number of qualifying events in an Event Region.
- Size of each qualifying event.
The REC Foundation RSM will ultimately determine the allocation each qualifying event is assigned within an Event Region.
- Large events may be allocated more spots than smaller events. Events of the same size within the Event Region should expect to have the same number of spots.
- Leagues may have more spots than equal sized Tournaments within the Event Region due to the higher number of Qualifying Matches and longer duration teams experience with Leagues compared to Tournaments.
- Leagues with fewer than six organizations registered may have fewer spots than Tournaments of equal size in order to balance the opportunity for teams in the Event Region to qualify for the Regional Championship.
- If a Qualifying Event is awarded allocated spots to a Regional Championship beyond the number of spots on the allocation charts, the REC Foundation RSM will work with that Region to determine how the additional spots are awarded.
- Spot levels follow the order of priority found in the charts below.
Note: On or before January 17, 2025, the REC Foundation Aerial Drone Competition RSM may allocate additional spots based on team registrations and number of events and finalize the Regional Championship spot allocation for the season.
Local Qualifying Event Double Qualification Process
If a team double qualifies (wins multiple qualifying awards) at a local qualifying event, a Regional Championship invitation will be awarded to the next highest-ranked team on the Skills Challenge list at that event who did not win a qualifying award at that event.
- There are no lookbacks to previous events to see if a team has previously qualified for the Regional Championship.
- If every team on the Skills Challenge list at the event has won a qualifying award at the event, the spot will be saved and awarded at the end of the season to the next highest-ranked non-qualified team from the World Skills List in that Event Region.
Teams competing at a local qualifying event that are from outside that Event Region are eligible to receive any performance-based or judged awards offered at the event and should be treated identically to teams from within that Event Region. However, any qualification spot to the Regional Championship associated with an award that is given to an out-of-region team will go to the next highest-ranked non-qualified team from within that Event Region on the Skills ranking at that event.
Aerial Drone Competition Regional Championships
An REC Foundation RSM will determine if an event qualifies for a Regional Championship and the corresponding spot allocation.
- A team is permitted to register for the Regional Championship in their Event Region.
- A team is not permitted to register for any Regional Championships outside of their Event Region.
- A team must have posted a skills score -OR- have competed in a qualifying event in the current season to be eligible for a Regional Championship invitation.
- Regional Championship events have no team minimum. Capacity is determined by the REC Foundation RSM in consultation with Event Partners in the Region.
- Regional Championships must be single grade level only (not blended).
Regional Championship Qualification Methods
There are several ways for teams to qualify to a Regional Championship:
- Qualifying Award
- Winning a qualifying award at an official event in the team’s Region.
- Skills Ranking
- To ensure that all US States and Canadian Provinces have an opportunity to be represented at their Regional Championship, if no team from a specific US or Canadian Region has earned a qualifying award to the Regional Championship, then the team with the top skills score on the World Skills Standing for that US or Canada Region will be invited to the Regional Championship.
- If the Regional Championship in an Event Region is not filled to capacity through qualifying awards or Skills scores from 2a, teams may qualify through the World Skills Standings sorted for the Event Region and by grade level. Teams invited through the World Skills Standings are invited in ranked order after the results of the last qualifying event in the Event Region have been posted. Scores earned after this date will not be used to qualify teams to their Regional Championship.
- Waitlist
- If there is remaining capacity due to teams not accepting a formal invitation, the Regional Championship capacity may be lowered or teams may be invited from the Waitlist. This will be decided by the REC Foundation RSM. When inviting teams from the the waitlist, the REC Foundation RSM will give priority to:
- Teams from underrepresented areas
- Teams offering to support the event with volunteers or equipment
- The order in which teams waitlisted themselves
- If there is remaining capacity due to teams not accepting a formal invitation, the Regional Championship capacity may be lowered or teams may be invited from the Waitlist. This will be decided by the REC Foundation RSM. When inviting teams from the the waitlist, the REC Foundation RSM will give priority to:
- Online Challenges
- Some online challenge winners may earn invitations to an Aerial Drone Championship. See the Online Challenge website for details.
NOTE: From time to time, the Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation may make an exception to one of these criteria to better support a growing Region.
Aerial Drone Competition Regional Championship Deadlines
Regional Championship Dates
- Regional Championships will be scheduled between April 12, 2025 and June 7, 2025.
Registration and Payment Deadline
- Teams that qualify for an Aerial Drone Regional Championship on or before February 28, 2025, will have four weeks to register and pay by credit card, check, or purchase order.
- Teams that qualify for an Aerial Drone Regional Championship on or after March 1, 2025, will have two weeks to register and pay by credit card, check, or purchase order.
- Teams that are invited for an Aerial Drone Regional Championship through the World Skills list or from the Waitlist will have one week to register and pay by credit card, check, or purchase order.
- 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 Spot Levels
| Spot Level | All-Around Champion* | Teamwork Mission Champions | Skills Missions Champion* | Communications Mission Champion | Coding Award | Airmanship Award |
| 1 | 1 | |||||
| 3 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||
| 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 7 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
*Aerial Drone Competition Spot Levels - If the event has more than 10 Middle School teams and 10 High School teams registered, the event will recognize two All-Around Champions and two Skills Missions Champion winners (one Middle and one High School).
JROTC
JROTC teams may compete in JROTC Invitational Events and/or Local Qualifying Events.
Invitational Events
An JROTC Invitational Event is an event that is only open to JROTC Teams.
Teams that attend a JROTC Invitational event and meet the qualifying criteria will qualify directly to the 2025 JROTC All-Service National Championship. Spot allocations will be determined by the REC Foundation. In order for these events to qualify directly to the JROTC National Championship, they must only have teams with a JROTC affiliation competing at the event.
There are no restrictions to the number of invitational events that are JROTC teams only.
Local Qualifying Event
A Local Qualifying Event is an event that is open to teams outside of JROTC and give JROTC teams opportunities to compete and to qualify for a Regional Championship. Please see the section on Local Qualifying Events above for more details.
JROTC All-Service National Championship
There are several ways for a JROTC team to qualify for the JROTC All-Service National Championship. Once qualified, teams will be able to register for the event if there is capacity remaining.
- Qualifying Award
- Winning a qualifying award at an official qualifying JROTC Invitational Event or a Local Qualifying Event. Qualifying awards include:
- All-Around Champion
- Teamwork Champion
- Skills Missions Champion
- Communication Mission Champion
- Coding Award
- Airmanship Award
- Skills Ranking
- If the JROTC All-Service National Championship is not filled to capacity through qualifying awards or Skills scores teams may qualify through the World Skills Standings. Teams invited through the World Skills Standings are invited in ranked order 6 weeks before the JROTC All-Service National Championship. Scores earned after this date will not be used to qualify teams to the JROTC All-Service National Championship.
- Waitlist
- If there is remaining capacity due to teams not accepting a formal invitation, the JROTC All-Service National Championship capacity may be lowered or teams may be invited from the Waitlist. This will be decided by the REC Foundation RSM. When inviting teams from the the waitlist, the REC Foundation RSM will give priority to:
- Teams from underrepresented areas
- Teams offering to support the event with volunteers or equipment
- The order in which teams waitlisted themselves
- If there is remaining capacity due to teams not accepting a formal invitation, the JROTC All-Service National Championship capacity may be lowered or teams may be invited from the Waitlist. This will be decided by the REC Foundation RSM. When inviting teams from the the waitlist, the REC Foundation RSM will give priority to:
NOTE: 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 and/or Region.
Questions? Reach out to drones@roboticseducation.org