Judge Guide

Before the competition
During registration you already picked the category where you want to be a judge. The
next step is to read and understand the general and age group rules. In this manual we tried to
gather everything else, focusing on how to be a great and confident judge. Here I want
to ask all the ‘veteran’ judges as well to read this manual, maybe we can surprise you
as well!

Judge meetings
We will let you know about the exact date of the online judge meeting later in the
season. In-person judge meetings will take place on the competition day, in the
morning. At these meetings we will discuss the exact competition schedule, judge
tasks, what to specifically look out for in the rules and how the scoring and evaluation
will take place. It is possible that not everything will be discussed that is enough for
you, so make sure you ask at the meetings or directly from the head judge to make
sure you get the right answer.
If there are any teams in the competition with whom you have any connection (you
coached, mentored them; they are relatives or close friends) let the head judges know
and they will make sure no to assign you to score those teams.

Judge attitude
It is important to note that as a judge you are not merely responsible of providing a fair
and just competition environment, but you are also responsible to make the competition
a positive experience, provide comfort when needed. This is highly important, because
in the competition area teams will not have any of their usual support people with them
(coaches, parents, etc.). You can do a lot of things to make sure teams enjoy the
competition:
• Try to enjoy the event and be as enthusiastic as possible. Your mood and
attitude will be an example for the children around you.
• Take all the questions seriously. No problem if you cannot answer them
yourself, but always make sure to do as much as you can, that all questions get
answer.
• Speak with the children. Listen when they have something to say and ask them
from time to time if they are okay, if they are enjoying themselves, if they need
anything.
• At times it might be important to comfort and support team members when
something doesn’t go the way they wanted it to. It is always easier for the
children to take the stress and pressure of the competition if they have judges
around them who understand them and care about them.
• If there is a 50-50% disputable situation (when you are evaluating or scoring) it
is better to rule your decision in favor of the team. This does not mean you van
be lenient toward any team, but your strictness should be limited to keeping the
competition fair.

Judge tasks at the competition
There will be at least one head judge present at the national final.
You will have to watch and score the robot runs of the RoboMission category teams
on the competition day, based on their performance on the competition table.
There will be at least two judges at each competition table to do the scoring and make
sure the fairness of the competition. The pairings will be announced before the
competition day.
The exact scoring procedure, the handling of the scoring system and other know-how
will be discussed at the judge meetings.