The competition CRC (Canadian Robotics Competition), founded in 2001, is an annual event that brings together students from CEGEPs and high schools across Canada. This competition challenges participants in various areas, including robot design and construction, website creation, video production and booth presentation. It provides a unique opportunity for students to showcase their skills in mathematics, programming, art, language and many other fields.
Hello and welcome, ladies with gentle hands, to the CRC Robotics Competition!The crowd goes wild! Schools from all across Canada will be competing for the chance to win this year’s 2025 CRC competition. To secure victory, teams will face off in 2v2 battles. Each match will feature two yellow teams and two blue teams, with each team possessing rings in their respective colors. Outside the field, you’re rivals, but once you step into the ring, alliances are born!
The game will begin with no rings on either team. They will need to retrieve the rings from the four hooks or piles scattered across the field, and they are only allowed to take three rings at once.
The game takes place on a 3x3 grid, with a stationary placed at each grid point. There are four stations in total and the objective is to possess the most stations either horizontally or vertically just like Tic-Tac-Toe! So, how do you control a station? Well, the rules are simple, but let’s break down the details of each station to make it easier to understand.
Let’s start with the station in the center of the field: The Zone. This station consists of four zones with one pole in the middle. The closer you are to the pole, the more points you score (an additional 5 points for each closer zone.) For example, if you're in the fourth zone (the furthest from the pole), you earn 5 points, but if you're in the first zone (the closest to the pole), you get 20 points.
Now, you might be wondering “What’s the pole for?” When a team places their first ring on the pole, they score 500 points! However, each ring stacked on top of the first one will earn fewer points. For example, placing your ring on top of the first one earns 400 points, placing it on top of the second ring earns 300 points, and so on. There’s a maximum of 5 rings that can be stacked on the pole. The team with the most rings closest to the pole will own the station!
Another station is the Ring Catcher. Four of these will be placed on the field and the goal is to stack rings on top of the pole. 20 points are awarded for each ring and the station belongs to the team that puts its final ring on top of the pole. Each pole can have no more than 6 to 24 rings. Next up is the Inverted Catcher, of which there are two placed on the field. It is comparable to the Ring Catcher, but you insert the rings from the bottom rather than stacking them on top. Each ring is worth 40 points and the station will belong to the team that puts their ring on the pole first.
Finally, the last stationary is called The Duel and there will be 2 stations with 30 points awarded for each ring. The pole is built like the letter “T”, each team has its own half of the "T" shaped pole. The teams must place their rings on the side that corresponds to their color. The station is owned by the team with the most rings on their corresponding side. Each side can have no more than eight rings.
The competition lasts 5 minutes, so if you want to see a team take home the win, expect a lot of strategy, teamwork, and quick thinking! Oh… just a heads-up, having a fully functioning robot is key. Otherwise, the team might end up with a front-row seat to their own disqualification!