USU and BYU's Back-to-school Duel

Welcome back from a long summer's break! USU's Combat Robotics club will be hosting a Plastic Antweight and Beetleweight tournament to kick off this school year. 

LOCATION: Richard and Moonyen Anderson Engineering Building (ENGR), this is USU’s main engineering building, and the arena will be the first thing you see when you walk in. Pits will be held in room 101.

PARKING: We recommend parking in the red lot by the Chase Fine Arts Center. Parking is free on the weekends. *Post video link here for navigation*

FEES: None!

TOURNAMENT FORMAT:

• Plastic Ants: Double elimination; you only get eliminated after losing two matches.
• Beetles: If there are 5 or less beetles, we will be doing a round-robin, where each bot gets to fight each other once. If there are 6 or more beetles, we will instead do a double-elimination tournament.
• SIDE-QUESTS:
  • Rumbles: We will be having a rumble before the final fight of each weight class. Winner will be decided either by last-bot standing, or crowd vote.
    • Robots that don’t qualify for the weightclass (ex. Beetles or full-combat ants in the plastic class) can only enter a rumble upon approval of ALL Rumble participants.
  • White-Board Matches: Robots that aren’t involved in the main tournament may sign up to fight one another during down-time.
    • No traditional formats here! Have a rematch, a three-for-all, a mini-rumble, or whatever your heart desires!
    • Maximum time allowed for a white-board match is 5 minutes, to the discretion of the event staff.

SCHEDULE*:

• 8:00 A.M: Doors open, Safety Checks begin
• 9:45 A.M: Driver’s safety meeting, and brackets finalized
• 10:00 A.M: FIGHTS!
• 12:30 P.M: Lunch break
• 1:30 P.M: Fights resume
• 4:00 P.M: Final fights
• 5:00 P.M: Awards and rumbles, and end of tournament

*Tournament schedule subject to change

RULESET: We observe SPARC rulesets. In addition, we have some additional rules:

1. TIP SPEED LIMIT: 3lbs bots will be subjected to a tip-speed limit of 250mph. Bots that can potentially exceed that limit will be required to limit their speed through their remotes if possible. We will contact you before the tournament to ensure compliance. However, there are some exceptions:
   1. Saws: Saws are defined as a thin blade that is designed to cut through materials, as opposed to kinetically impacting opponents. If your robot uses this type of weapon, you must get event-organizer permission before the event.
   2. Hammer-saws: Bots with a small blade on an articulating arm, also with the intention of cutting through materials rather than impacting opponents. Blades must weigh 70 grams or less. As with saw-bots, you must get event-organizer permission before the event.
2. JUDGE’S RULESET: We will be using the Damage, Control and Aggression Criteria listed in SPARC Judging guidelines V1. In the event both robots make it to the end of a 3-minute match, the winner will be determined by a panel of three judges. They will judge matches based on three criteria:
   1. Damage: 6 points
      1. Any damage from previous matches should be noted by Judges before the beginning of the match.
      2. Judges may call for an inspection after the matchup.
   2. Control: 6 points
   3. Aggression: 5 points
      1. Robots must show translational movement toward their opponent to count as aggression. Randomly crashing around the arena will not count for this.
3. PIT SAFETY: As a precaution to builders, their robots, and the university, please observe the following rules.
   1. Batteries must be charged in fireproof bags and monitored while charging.
   2. Soldering must be done over a soldering pad, NO SOLDERING DIRECTLY OVER TABLES!
   3. All robots with spinning weapons must have a weapon lock to prevent unintentional motion. This lock must be on at all times, and only have it removed if the battery is disconnected from the robot, or after putting it in the arena.
   4. IN THE CASE OF FIRE OR SMOKE:
      1. Immediately bring the battery/robot/part to a sand bucket to be wheeled outside
      2. Notify event staff IMMEDIATELY
      3. The offending item must be left in the bucket until there is no longer risk of fire.
4. TIME LIMITS: Builders will receive a guaranteed 20-minutes time to repair their robots between matches. We will be much stricter on this as we approach the end of the event.
   1. In the event a team is not ready for their matchup, they will be given 3 matchups to get their robot ready. After this, the team will forfeit their match.
      1. This includes tournament matches, rumbles and whiteboards.