Running a League

A league spreads a VEX Robotics Competition team's Qualifying Matches across several separate meetups instead of packing them into a single day. Each meetup, called a Ranking Session, feeds results into a running ranking, and that ranking determines who competes at the final meetup, called the League Finals. This article covers how leagues differ from tournaments, the two ways a league can be organized, and the steps for setting one up on events.vex.com and Tournament Manager.

Definitions of the terms used here are maintained in the central glossary.

For the requirements a league must meet to count as a qualifying event, see Event Qualifying Criteria. For general instructions on posting an event to events.vex.com, see Creating a New Event.

What Is a League?

A league requires a minimum of three Ranking Sessions plus one League Finals session. Qualifying Matches are split across the Ranking Sessions, and everything — matches and rankings alike — builds toward the Finals, which is the only session where judging takes place (and even there, judging is optional).

Why Run a League Format?

Leagues solve problems that a single-day tournament can't:

• Shorter sessions – Because qualifying matches and finals don't have to happen on the same day, a Ranking Session can run in a short window, such as right after school. A 16-team session giving each team 3-4 matches can typically finish on one field in under two hours.
• Partial attendance – A Ranking Session doesn't need every team in the league to show up. A 24-team league could run 12 teams in one session and the other 12 in another, which cuts down on travel (especially if the league rotates locations), the number of fields needed at any one session (often just one), and the volunteers required, since judges and multi-field scorekeepers aren't needed at every session.
• Flexible eligibility rules – A league doesn't have to be open in order to be invitational, and leagues aren't subject to the usual cap on teams per organization. That flexibility supports scenarios such as a school district pooling its teams into one in-district league scheduled at the district's convenience, a large organization running an internal league to give its own teams more playing time, an Event Partner with limited space running smaller Ranking Sessions that build to one set of League Finals, or a league built for a specific subset of teams, such as first-year teams.

Invitational vs. Open Leagues

An Open league accepts any team that registers before the deadline, the same as a typical tournament. An Invitational league targets a specific group of teams and needs advance planning to make sure that group knows about the league and registers for it. Because a league runs over several weeks rather than a single day, it calls for more scheduling and a bigger commitment from teams than a one-day event does.

Running a league also takes some internal coordination: there need to be enough Ranking Session spots for every team, and teams typically must attend a minimum number of matches to qualify for the League Finals — for some leagues, every team in the league meets that minimum automatically.

How Teams Are Ranked

Teams are ranked by how many matches they've played. Teams that play at least 60% of the total matches available in the league are ranked above teams that play less than 60%. For example, in a league with 3 Ranking Sessions and 4 Qualification Matches per team per session (12 matches total), teams that play 8 or more matches rank above teams that play 7 or fewer.

For the league and ranking requirements specific to a program, see the game manual for the VEX V5 Robotics Competition or the VEX IQ Robotics Competition.

Setting Up a League in Tournament Manager

Leagues work differently from single-day events in Tournament Manager (TM):

• Use the same TM file for every session in the league.
• When you set up the event in TM, select the box marking it as a league — this must be selected for the league to be configured correctly.
• When you start a session, TM will prompt you to check in the teams attending that session, so it only schedules matches for teams that are present.
• Add every team in the league to events.vex.com first. Don't add teams to the league through Tournament Manager — as with any event, teams must be registered on events.vex.com before they can be added.
• Upload match results and skills scores to events.vex.com after every session, but only finalize results after the last Ranking Session.

Posting Your League

1. Confirm the dates and venues for every Ranking Session and the Finals Session before you start.
2. Create the league event on events.vex.com, using the date of the first Ranking Session as both the Start Date and End Date.
3. Add every session as its own date: select +New Date once for each Ranking Session and once for the Finals Session. Each session needs its own listed date — don't enter a date range spanning the first and last sessions. Leave at least one week between Ranking Sessions, and add every session before submitting the league for approval.
4. Add the agenda for each Ranking Session and the Finals Session to the Agenda content block.
5. Set the Registration Opens date as early as possible — ideally more than 8 weeks before the first Ranking Session.
6. Set Event Capacity higher than the smallest venue can hold, and ask teams to sit out one session so more teams can participate. Teams sitting out a session can be encouraged to volunteer instead, in a role other than judging or refereeing.

For full instructions on posting any event to events.vex.com, see Creating a New Event.

Running Ranking Sessions

• Reuse equipment, volunteers, and ideas from other sessions instead of building everything from scratch for your own session.
• Keep the setup simple: run V5RC fields on smart field control, use a single computer with one audience display, and use tablet scoring if your team has the technical know-how for quick scoring and verification.
• Build in time for inspections, and consider a sticker system — do a full inspection at the first session, then just a quick visual and measurement check afterward to save time.
• Save (without finalizing) the Tournament Manager file and upload it to events.vex.com at the end of each session; finalize only after the final session.
• Limit each team to 3-4 Qualification Matches per session, then wrap up.
• Space sessions out so teams have time to apply what they learned to their design and programming before the next one.
• Skip pit table assignments at Ranking Sessions — there's no judging, so if the event is small, teams can find alliance partners on their own.
• Offer Robot Skills Challenge matches at every Ranking Session (up to 3 Driver and 3 Autonomous Coding Skills matches per session) so every team gets an equal shot at posting a score.
• Please clarify the timing and logistics for the League Finals: Following the final qualification match of the last Ranking Session, Event Partners should save scores and conduct the Alliance Selection. This allows teams adequate time to prepare for the elimination matches that will take place during the League Finals session.

Running the League Finals Session

The Finals Session is the only part of a league that includes judging (optional) and finals matches, so it typically involves more planning than a Ranking Session.

• Start with judging and Robot Skills Challenge matches. Once judging is complete, move to Elimination/Finals matches depending on the competition program.
• Include as many teams as possible in the elimination and finals rounds.
• For V5RC, choose an 8, 10, 12, 14, or 16-seed bracket, per the VEX V5 Robotics Competition game manual.
• If you're giving out awards you don't have trophies for, print certificates from Tournament Manager.
• Save a copy of the Tournament Manager file, then finalize it and upload the results to events.vex.com.

Best Practices for League Planning

• Give teams a scheduled off week and encourage them to volunteer at the event while they're not competing.
• Partner with another Event Partner to share game resources and volunteers.
• Ask every team to provide one volunteer for the event.
• Keep the technology setup simple.
• Collect Engineering Notebooks at the last regular session and return them at the League Finals. Alternatively, you may request digital notebooks be submitted at the final Ranking Session to allow judges sufficient time to review them before the League Finals.
• Hold all award judging at the League Finals.
• Offer skills matches at every session.
• Open the league with a practice session that covers robot inspection, troubleshooting, and the overall flow of the event for students.
• Set the event's cost to reflect the number of sessions and matches it includes.

Qualifying Criteria

To count as a qualifying event, a league must follow the Event Qualifying Criteria. If anything in this article conflicts with a game manual or the Event Qualifying Criteria, the game manual and Event Qualifying Criteria take precedence.