Lesson 1: Identifying and Classifying Violations

Handling a violation comes down to two questions: did a rule get broken, and how serious was it? The first is recognition, the skill the rest of this course has already been building, lesson by lesson. The second is classification — choosing the right level of response. In VEX IQ Robotics Competitions, that response is almost always small, because almost every violation at this level is an accident. This lesson is less about “catching teams” and more about matching a calm, consistent response to what actually happened.

Before continuing, read the following in the current Game Manual:

• Appendix D, which defines a Violation, a Minor Violation, a Major Violation, and Score Affecting.
• The Disablement and Disqualification definitions in the Glossary (Appendix C).
• <T1> Head Referees have ultimate and final authority on all gameplay and Robot ruling decisions.

When a Violation Has Occurred

A violation is simply the act of breaking a rule in the Game Manual. Recognizing one is the skill you have been building throughout this course, like a robot expanding beyond its legal limit, a Bean Bag introduced illegally by a Loader, or a robot still scoring after the timer reaches 0:00. Just as important is recognizing what is not a violation: partner robots bumping into each other, a Bean Bag knocked loose by accident, or the ordinary wobbles of a robot driven by a young student. The Game Manual itself points you toward generosity in close moments — a last-second scoring attempt that is "too close to call" is generally given the benefit of the doubt and counted (<GG12>).

Violations can happen in Robot Skills Matches too. Because a Robot Skills Match involves a single team, the framework is simpler: there is no Score Affecting question to weigh against an alliance partner, a Disqualification results in a score of zero for that match, and violations during Robot Skills Matches only affect that match. 

Once you have identified that a rule was broken, the next step is to classify how serious it was.

Classifying the Violation

Most violations are routine, and most are handled with nothing more than a verbal warning. The levels below move from least to most serious:

• Verbal warning (informal) — Not a penalty, but a clear heads-up during the match that a rule is being broken, giving the team a chance to correct before anything escalates. In VEX IQ matches, this is your most-used tool, and how you deliver it matters as much as when.
• Minor Violation — A violation that does not result in a Disqualification. Accidental, momentary, or otherwise non-Score Affecting violations are usually Minor, and usually come with a verbal warning during the match.
• Major Violation — A violation that results in a Disqualification. Unless a rule says otherwise, every Score Affecting violation is a Major Violation (you will learn to determine Score Affecting in the next lesson). Egregious, strategic, or intentional violations can also be Major when a rule notes it, and repeated Minor Violations can escalate to a Major at your discretion or as a specific rule directs.
• Disqualification — The result of a Major Violation. How a Disqualification plays out depends on whether it happens in a Qualification, Finals, or Robot Skills Match, which will be covered in Lesson 3.

Disablement is separate from this ladder. It is a safety penalty, not a measure of how serious a rule break was. A team that receives a Disablement may not operate its robot for the rest of the match, and the Drivers are asked to set their controller down. You apply it when a robot is unsafe, whether or not a Minor or Major Violation is also involved.

One requirement connects classification to documentation: when you issue a Minor or Major Violation, you must be able to point to the specific rule number that was broken. Recording it is part of the after-match documentation that will be covered in Lesson 3.