Before you post a competition, it helps to know whether the day you have in mind actually fits. This planner takes what you already know about your event — program, how many teams you'll accept, how many fields you have, and how long you have the venue — and lays out a realistic day for it. It tells you whether the proposed schedule works, how much breathing room you'll have, and how many volunteers it might take to run.
Tell it about your event
Fill in the fields below. There's nothing to submit — the plan further down updates as you type, so try a few versions: a different team capacity, an extra field, a later end time. Changing one thing at a time is the quickest way to find a day that works.
Event
- Program — VEX IQ or VEX V5. The two run differently: V5 matches are longer and put more robots on the field, inspection takes longer, and V5 events run Alliance Selection and Eliminations where VEX IQ runs Finals Matches.
- Team capacity — the number of teams you'll post as your limit. Plan for a full event. The planner covers 16 to 64 teams; 16 is the minimum for a qualifying event.
- Competition fields — how many fields you'll run Qualification Matches on (1 to 3). Don't count Robot Skills or practice fields; the planner adds those for you.
The day
- Event start — when doors open and check-in begins.
- Venue end time — when you have to be out of the building. The planner treats it as a hard stop, so give it the real time, not a hopeful one. Be sure you have enough time to account for tear-down if needed.
- Lunch break — a 30-minute lunch halfway through Qualification Matches. Robot Skills and practice fields can keep running through it. Turning lunch off gives those 30 minutes back to the day.
You as the Event Partner
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Events hosted before — how many competitions you've run. This sets how the planner paces your day and what it expects of you:
- Novice (0–1 events): a slightly slower match pace, one head referee, and a smaller crew before it flags the event as a stretch.
- Experienced (2–4 events): a faster pace, and up to two head referees.
- Expert (5 or more): the fastest pace, and no limit on crew size.
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Judging — none, remote, or on-site. Judging never changes the schedule; it adds judges and a Judge Advisor to your volunteer count. For your first events we suggest skipping judging to keep things simple, but it's your call.
- On-site judging and remote judging will show different volunteer counts. Often, remote judging requires additional volunteers in order to facilitate the asynchronous notebook review and/or interviews.
Read your plan
Start with the verdict at the top of the plan:
- Recommended — the day fits with room to spare, and the crew is a reasonable size for your experience.
- Questionable — timing — it fits, but with less cushion than we'd like (under about 5% of your venue time). One slow stretch could push you past your end time.
- Questionable — volunteers — the timing is fine, but the crew is large for your experience level. Consider fewer fields or skipping judging.
- Not feasible — the day doesn't fit before your venue end time. The verdict tells you roughly how much time you're short and how many fewer teams would fit.
Under the verdict:
- Finishes around — when the day should end, and how much time that leaves before your venue end time (or how late it would run).
- Volunteers — how many people it takes to run the day, plus you.
- Fields — your competition fields plus the Robot Skills and practice fields the event needs. Events over 30 teams get a second practice field; events over 40 get a second Robot Skills field.
- Matches per team and Time per match — how many Qualification Matches each team plays, and the time from one match start to the next, in minutes and seconds (3:00).
The timeline draws the whole day to scale, with your venue end time marked in red; each color is one part of the day. The hatched slivers are buffer: 30 to 60 minutes, depending on team count, spread across the day for the things that may run long. It's scheduled on purpose and counts toward the total. The day, block by block lists the same day as an agenda.
Volunteer crew lists each job in plain terms and how many people it takes, so you know who you're recruiting. Some jobs need training: Head Referees and the Judge Advisor must be certified, and certification is recommended for judges and scorekeepers. Those jobs are tagged, and the crew heading counts how many certified volunteers you need — recruit for those first, since certification takes time. Other ways to run your day shows the other options the planner tried — 6, 7 or 8 matches per team, with one or two head referees — and how each would turn out. The highlighted one is its pick; options that need more hosting experience than you have are marked Needs more experience.
Print summary puts your inputs and the plan on a single page — handy for a planning meeting, or to keep with your event paperwork.
Before you commit to a plan
The planner is a starting point, not the plan itself. It's built from the pace of real VEX events, but every event runs a little differently, and yours will too.
- Estimates lean long, on purpose. Plan for the day it shows you. If things go smoothly you'll finish early, which is a much better problem than running late.
- It plans one day. Multi-day events, or days split across venues, aren't covered.
- It doesn't know your venue. Setup and teardown, when you can get into the building, and the walk between pits and fields all shape your day. Fit setup and teardown around the window you enter.
- It doesn't know your teams or volunteers. A room full of first-year teams, a new scorekeeper, or a field that needs repairs will slow the day; seasoned volunteers and teams will speed it up.
- The crew is the minimum to run the competition. It doesn't include concessions, a Tournament Manager operator, greeters, or other roles you might want. Add those on top, and recruit a few spares, because someone may cancel.
- The planner works for up to 64 teams. For a larger event, contact your Program Support Team to help plan your day.
If the planner says a day works, that's a good sign, not a guarantee. If it says a day doesn't work, take that seriously: it usually means the day needs more time, fewer teams, or more fields before you post it.