“VEX Robotics is educational robotics for everyone. VEX solutions span all levels of both formal and informal education with accessible, scalable, and affordable solutions. Beyond science and engineering principles, VEX encourages creativity, teamwork, leadership, and problem solving among groups. It allows educators of all types to engage and inspire the STEM problem solvers of tomorrow!” -VEX Robotics
The middle school VEX IQ teams consist of 2-4 team members each with their own strategy, goals, and mission.
The 2025-2026 Game: Mix and Match
This years competition, Mix and Match is held on a 6’x8′ rectangular field, designed for a strategic and collaborative experience. In this game, teams work together to load and form form stacks of pins and organize them into goal zones.
Robots use Pins and Beams to build Stacks and place them in Goals, while Drive Team Members can load additional Pins via the Load Zone. Scoring is multi-faceted: points are earned for connecting pieces, matching colors, achieving multi-color stacks, placing in matching or standoff goals, clearing starting pins, and robot-object contact at match end.
In the Teamwork Challenge, two robots collaborate to score as many points as possible within a 60-second match. Additionally, teams can participate in Robot Skills Matches, where a single robot aims to score under a slightly modified set of rules. More details on this can be found in the Game Manual