Rock & Robots: Robot Tournament Rules

Rock & Robots: Rules

While Rock & Robots does rule, the robot tournament also has rules for safety and consistency. Here they are:

Rock & Robots: Robot Tournament Rules v1.3, 9/8/2026

Build rules
1. Weight limits: Wheeled robots: 150g / Walkers, shufflers, hovercrafts: 300g (option to limit shufflers 225g later if this is becomes overexploited).
  1. This weight limit may be split across multiple robots which work as a team in what is known as a clusterbot. The weight of wheeled parts plus half the weight of walker/shuffler/hovercraft parts must not exceed 300g (wheeled + (walker/2) < 150g). Clusterbot status must be declared before the tournament begins.
  2. Robots with locomotion supplied by both legs and powered wheel(s) count as wheeled. Robots with legs and non-powered wheel(s) count as walkers.
2. One dimension of the robot at its usual orientation during operation, other than height, must demonstrably fit through the pit opening regardless of expansion (i.e. no wider than 20 cm)
  1. Must fit in a 20cm x 20cm square on full extension. This square will be painted onto the arena for quick checks.
3. Robots must have: accessible shutoff (switch/link/plug – can be hidden but must be quickly accessible and deactivated with hands or a non-powered tool), failsafe settings coded, ability to move across the surface of the arena.
4. Robots must not have:
  1. Anti-competitive weapons: adhesives, fluids, entanglement, magnetic/inductive systems, RF interference devices.
  2. Weapons/robot features posing danger to people around the arena: flame, explosives, electricity as a weapon (e.g. tasers), kinetic energy storage/transfer (i.e. spinners), drills, pressurised gas/liquid, sharp points, untethered projectiles, tethered projectiles, weapons which deliberately detach, strobe lights
  3. Messy weapons: glitter, confetti, weapons which may shatter.
  4. Batteries containing liquid acid, electrolyte, or exceeding a maximum of 24 volts.
5. If you have a robot design which you believe will be safe to fight in an open arena but which is not explicitly allowed by these rules, contact tolerablemusic@gmail.com to discuss this.
6. Multiple separate robots may compete as the same named robot entry (e.g. an A chassis and a B chassis with different weapons which could, given time, be modified to function as the other), but this must be declared on the signup form and all interchangeable robots must be presented to the organiser at the start of the event. If the event organiser is not satisfied that the two robots are functionally identical enough, only one chassis may be used for that tournament.
7. A roboteer may request a fight postponement of up to 2 minutes to change configurations before any fight as long as they indicate at the start of the tournament that they may do this. The referee may deny this postponement if time is in short supply or, in exceptional circumstances grant a longer time.
Combat Rules
1. Fights will last for a maximum of 2 minutes, with the exception of rumbles which have no time limit. If time is in short supply, all fights in a particular round may be cut to 1 minute. Fights in side events are also generally 1 minute maximum.
2. The fight begins as soon as the word which begins the fight is started by the referee (e.g. the "F" in "Fight", the "A" in "Activate)
3. No judges are appointed so fights can end in draws.
  1. Fights which must have winners which are drawn after 2 minutes are decided by a “joust” – an untimed fight taking place on a plank stretched over the top of the arena (may be replaced by a disc).
4. The aim of a fight is to immobilise the opponent. Robots declared immobilised are eliminated from a fight. Immobilisation is counted at the point when (i) a countdown which makes it from 10 to 0 a completed 10 second countout, as laid out in section 2.4.1, begins (ii) a robot last makes contact with the arena surface before ending up in the pit or over the wall (in this case, the countdown is implied to save time, placing our trust in the laws of physics)
  1. A countout is started when a robot is not moving and is not in contact with another robot. The referee should start the countout as close as possible to the point of noticing that a robot is not moving, but with some leeway to ensure that not every deliberate pause starts a countout. Contact will reset a countout to 10. Countouts involve each second being called by the referee , starting with “Countout on [robot name], 10”, then “9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1”, then “KO!” o “0!”. The beginning of the K in “KO!” or the Z in “0” marks the end of the fight.
  2. The referee may declare a robot immobilised without a countout when it is wedged between the arena opening and the outer wall with absolutely no way of regaining movement (i.e. stuck above the pit). The referee will audibly declare a robot “irretrievable” in this case.
5. Movement counts as any change in position, whether this is fully controlled or in circles. Two robots unable to engage with each other will result in a double countout, with the result being a draw if it reaches 0 with no engagement.
6. At any time in a fight, a roboteer may forfeit the fight by throwing one of the "Tap Out!" pillows, usually stored in each pit, into the arena. This action is not reversible.
  1. Roboteers are encouraged to tap out when they are reasonably sure that they can not regain mobility as this reduces fight congestion.
7. Pins against an arena wall or other immobile object may last a maximum of 10 seconds. When 10 seconds have elapsed, the referee will call to release and the pinner must retreat to the opposite side of the arena before reengaging.
  1. A robot beaching its opponent on its non-powered forks counts as a pin
8. Grabs with a weapon (e.g moving claw, moving forks, closing flipper) may be held for a maximum of 20 seconds. A pin which becomes a grab will be timed from the point at which the pin was identified.
  1. After 15 seconds, the grabber will be told they have 5 seconds to release. When 20 seconds is up, the grabber must release the grabbed robot wherever it is without moving across the arena surface and retreat an ample distance before reengaging. The grabber may release into a pit if its positioning will result in that. The fight is only paused if the grabber is unable to release without moving. The grabber receives a card if they delay/refuse/act unsportingly, e.g. deliberately moving forward to deposit into a pit.
    1. If the fight is paused for a manual separation, the robots restart from corners with the remaining fight time left on the clock.
    2. A grabber which has just released a robot may not re-engage for an immediate advantage. The referee will pause and send robots to separate corners to continue the fight if something is afoot.
9. When a pin/grab is identified, the referee will count upward in seconds and when the maximum time is reached, the referee will call to disengage. If robots are unable to disengage, i.e. if they are stuck together, the fight will be paused and the robots will be manually separated, being placed in separate corners.
10. If a roboteer or someone judged to be a roboteer’s representative manipulates a robot or the arena during a fight by any means other than radio control, they immediately forfeit the fight. This includes touching, blowing, stomping, shaking the arena and throwing anything into the arena. The fight may still continue to its conclusion for entertainment purposes but for admin purposes, the forfeiting action overrides any eventual result.
  1. If a neutral party manipulates any robot or the arena, the fight is paused, the robots are returned to approximately where they were at the point of interference and the fight is restarted.
  2. The arena camera is legally part of the wall. The operator will endeavour not to interfere with the fight with its positioning, but accidents happen.
11. All parts of a clusterbot must be declared immobilised for the robot to be eliminated. Counts will not start on clusterbots until all parts are lacking mobility, so one part of a clusterbot may try to revive its teammate.
  1. The Cheesy The Lobster Rule: Unreasonably small clusterbot parts which move but are not actively controllable do not count towards the robot’s mobility.
12. No contact = no contest: if a robot becomes immobilised before any robots in the battle have made contact, the battle is restarted. A maximum of 1 restart is allowed per robot, with a yellow card being shown to a robot which became immobile to force this restart. A robot may be eliminated without making contact if contact has occurred between any of the other robots in the fight. Contact between 2 members of the same clusterbot does not count as fight-validating contact.
13. Aggressor Rule: if multiple robots become immobilised at the same time, where one robot can be clearly identified as the aggressor to this action, the aggressor is judged to have won. Common sense comes into play with judging this.
  1. A robot fully in control of a grab who reverses into the pit taking the opponent with it is considered an aggressor. The referee must explain out loud which robot they believe the aggressor was.
14. If opposing robots become immobilised simultaneously with no clear aggressor with 1:00 or more on the clock, then the fight will be paused, the robots will be placed back in their start positions by the referee and the fight restarted with 1:00 remaining. No repairs or adjustments of switches are permitted but the roboteers may specify which way up their robot should start.
15. If 0:59 or less is left on the clock in a faultless simultaneous immobilisation, the fight will end as a draw.
16. If both robots are unable to continue after a restart, a draw is declared. If a winner is required, robots may be switched back on and can be worked on for up to 20 seconds without leaving the arena or using any tools before beginning a joust. The referee can declare a loss for a robot taking too long to take its place in a joust,
  1. The Seal Of Approval Rule: Robots must start a joust with their drive wheels/tracks/footprint positioned roughly parallel to the long edges of the plank
17. The contact rule is reset for a joust, so each robot may have 1 restart if they leave the plank before contact is made.
18. Yellow and red cards
  1. A yellow card will be shown to a robot and the fight timer will be paused (if it is running) if:
    1. it moves before the fight begins and gains a tangible advantage from this movement (false starts resulting in no advantage allow the fight to continue)
    2. it becomes immobile before contact is made
    3. it does not disengage from a pin or grab when instructed (in an unsporting manner)
  2. A red card will be shown to a robot and it will (a) receive a 3 point penalty in the group stage or (b) forfeit the current knockout fight it is involved in, once it reaches a conclusion if:
    1. it gathers 2 yellow cards within the same fight/pre-fight
    2. its roboteer interferes with it, another robot or the arena by any method other than remote control (as in rule 2.10)
    3. For clarity, a robot shown a red card may still fight in its scheduled fight, but if it wins, the 3 points it gains are effectively nullified in a group stage fight and its opponent progresses in a knockout fight.
    4. If a robot is red-carded from a final before it begins,(not decided but hopefully this will not happen before we decide)
    5. If a robot is red-carded from a final for actions taken during that final, they forfeit the fight at its conclusion.
    6. If a red-carded robot wins a knockout fight with more than one opponent, the two losers will meet in a joust to decide the one which progresses
  3. Yellow and red cards can be shown to a roboteer for misconduct at the discretion of the event organiser. If a roboteer receives 2 yellows or one red on one night, they will be disqualified from the tournament and asked to leave the venue. Currently, there are no guidelines on misconduct deserving a yellow or red card but we will know it when we see it. Excessive timewasting which causes delays to the event, e.g. by making the arena unusable, is a specific cardable offence.
    1. Cards shown to robots do not carry over to their roboteers, they are strictly for infringements against the fight rules.
    2. Cards shown to roboteers also do not carry over to their robots.
19. Good Faith clauses
  1. In occasions where a roboteer has particularly bad luck, such as where Robot A, before contact is made with Robot B, drives into a position where it is not immobile but one small push will make it immobile, Robot B may either choose to take the easy win or verbally declare that it will hang back to let its opponent be declared irretrievable, giving Robot A a yellow card and a second chance to fight.
  2. If Robot B decides to take the easy win, the referee may record the result but allow an exhibition fight between A and B to immediately take place if the roboteers agree. That exhibition fight’s result has no bearing on the tournament.
20. While exposure of a lipo battery is an automatic loss at other events, the referee can keep the fight going if it is judged that the risk of the battery being damaged is negligible. More often than not, the risk will not be negligible. Full ejection will lead to disqualification from the fight.
21. The referee can declare a loss for all robots in a fight in cases where no robot can be reasonably called a winner, awarding 0 points to both robots. This includes if one minute of the fight has elapsed and no contact was made between the robots.
  1. You would hope this wouldn’t happen in a knockout fight, but if it does, a joust between the next-most eligible robots (robots that lost to these robots in the previous round or which placed directly below them in their groups, whichever the referee decides is most appropriate) will decide who progresses.
22. Referee decisions may not be influenced by video or photographic replays. If the referee believes a situation was unclear, the roboteers involved in the fight may be consulted for clarification. If this does not inform a clear decision, Rules 2.14 and 2.15 take effect.
23. The “we didn’t codify entanglement” rule: Entanglement is where robots are stuck together without the influence of a moving weapon. The referee can pause the fight to manually separate robots and can request roboteers move their weapons remotely to help separate them.
Competition guidelines
1. To ensure as many fights can happen as quickly as possible, each driver may only enter one robot into the main tournament. Each robot must have a dedicated transmitter, receiver, components and battery, none of which are shared with any other robot in the tournament.
  1. Loans for emergency repairs which would breach that rule are permitted only when the loaning roboteer’s robot has already been eliminated.
2. Each driver may substitute a different robot into the silver medal rumble or the side event.
3. The event organiser has the final say on any issues and on enforcing rules and has the authority to disqualify roboteers for infringements or unreasonable behaviour.
4. If a robot is not ready to begin a fight when called, its fights can be moved to the end of the list of currently scheduled fights. Due to the limited time given to the tournament, the event organiser is free to declare a loss for a robot which is not ready to enter the arena if it is judged that waiting any longer will delay the end of the tournament.
5. Group tiebreakers
  1. In group stages, when two robots are level on points and qualification for a further round relies on a robot's final position in the group, the robot who won the head-to-head fight between the two will finish higher. If the two did not fight in the group or if their fight was a draw, a joust will take place. (rule 2.3.1)
  2. When 3 or more robots are level on points and qualification for a further round relies on this tie being broken, they will enter a joust without taking into account the results between them. Each joust may only have one winner so if 2 qualifiers need to be sourced from this joust, the losing robots from the first joust will joust again until all necessary positions have been filled.
  3. When robots are level on points and none will qualify for further rounds, group positions are not officially given.
Fight variations
1. 1v1 – two robots enter, fight ends after either 2 minutes or when one robot is immobilised.
2. 2v2/team fight – predefined teams or pairs of robots enter. All robots may be active at the same time (no designated corners or tagging). Countouts only begin when all members of one team are immobile, so mobile robots can attempt to revive teammates. 2 minute time limit, team with more active robots at the end wins.
3. Rumble – 3 or more robots, countout only begins when only one robot is suspected to be mobile due to there being no dedicated referee. If immobile robots are in the arena when the last 2 robots become immobile together, the aggressor rule applies, where relevant, if none of the immobile robots in the arena can show movement within a 10 second countdown. Only the winner is recorded, all others are losers. No time limit.
4. Boss fight – team of antweights v one larger robot. 2 minute limit, boss wins by eliminating all the antweights, antweights win by immobilising the boss. Unsticking rules still apply. The fight can end in a draw.
5. Royal Rumble - 2 ramps provide entry points to the arena. 2 robots begin the fight in the arena together with 2 more robots powered on and waiting behind the red line on each ramp. After 20 seconds has elapsed, one robot parked on a ramp may be sent into the fight and another can take its place on the ramp. this repeats every 20 seconds until all robots have been sent in and the fight ends when only one robot is mobile. If the number of robots in the arena drops below 2, robots can be immediately sent in to make it up to 2, resetting the 20 second timer.
6. Side events - these may have different win conditions, e.g. most goals, possession of an object when time expires. Any rule changes will be specified to all competitors before the event.
Season rules
1. The robot which wins each monthly tournament gains entry to that year’s Champion of Champions tournament, held at the end of the current year or the start of the next one, whichever allows more champions to compete.
  1. This robot’s place may be taken by a robot named as a sequel to that robot.
  2. If a roboteer qualifies with more than one robot, the tournament will be formatted so only one may make it to the final.
  3. Roboteers with multiple monthly tournament wins will be seeded higher in the draw for the Champion of Champions tournament
2. The robot which wins each month’s rumble gains entry to that year’s Ultimate Rumble, held after the Champion of Champions tournament.
  1. This robot’s place may be taken by a robot named as a sequel to that robot.
  2. If a roboteer qualifies with more than one robot, all of those robots may start the Ultimate Rumble in the arena, either with the same driver or a different driver.
  3. Winning multiple monthly rumbles gives no seeding or battle advantage – the reward is removing potential opponents from the Ultimate Rumble.
3. Roboteers also compete for the Drivers’ Championship across the year.
  1. Roboteers receive points for their placing in each monthly tournament:
    1. 25 for 1st
    2. 18 for 2nd
    3. 15 for 3rd
    4. 12 for 4th
    5. 10 for 5th
    6. 8 for 6th
    7. 6 for 7th
    8. 5 for 8th
    9. 4 for 9th
    10. 3 for 10th
    11. 2 for 11th
    12. 1 for 12th
  2. Roboteers eliminated at the same stage share the highest position available to them, e.g. 4 robots eliminated at the quarter finals all place 5th in that tournament
  3. Roboteers eliminated in the group stage are ranked based on their total points in that tournament rather than their place in the group. After each tournament, a full table is made by combining all of the group tables. Robots which did not progress from the group stage
  4. Roboteers placing lower than 12th receive one point (0.5 points?) for every fight they won in the main tournament.
    1. If this causes any roboteers placing lower than 12th to receive more points than any roboteers in the top 12, roboteers in the lowest positions will receive bonus points for that month to bring them to one more point than the highest scoring roboteer placing 13th or lower.
  5. Each roboteer’s 8 best results from the year count towards the Drivers’ Championship.
    1. In the case of a tie for first place in the Drivers’ Championship, the number of 1st places within those best 8 results, then 2nd places, and so on is taken into account. If these are all tied, each roboteer may nominate one of their robots to fight in a single battle for the Championship.

Changes in August 2026

All projectiles banned

Cheesy The Lobster Rule

Clearup on declaring irretrievable

Grab/pin rule clarification

Parallel jousting

Red/yellow card offences listed

Jousts will become sumo when the equipment is ready

Changes in September 2025

Red/yellow cards

Fight start definition

Group tiebreakers

Jousts

Changes in early 2025

Robots operated by doglead (electrical cable between controller and robot) are no longer allowed and all references to them have been removed.

Pressurised gas/liquid weaponry is banned until trials showing safety can be done

Added Royal Rumble as a battle type

Added Tap Out pillows as the official forfeit method