---
title: Standing rules — how Botz Games is run
canonical: https://botz.games/rules/
owns: The standing rules governing Botz Games editions
updated: 2026-08-28
---

The arena · standing rules Eight rules that hold every edition The answer Four things stop a robot competition from being marketing, and all four are structural rather than editorial: the rubric is published before entries open, the scorers hold no position and disclose it, every score carries written reasoning a competitor can dispute, and a published result is superseded by a new publication rather than edited. A competition missing any one of them is a showcase. § 01The rules #RuleWhy 01The rubric is published before entries openA rubric written after the results is not a rubric. Ours is at /rubric/ and predates every edition. 02All six conditions are scoredIncluding authority, settlement and accountability, which no other competition scores. An arena measuring only capability is a sports event. 03Every score carries written reasoningSo a competitor can dispute one number rather than the whole result. 04Scorers hold no position in entrantsDisclosed on every edition. A scorer with an interest is a judge with a stake. 05Results are superseded, never editedA published result stands with its date. A correction is a new publication that says what changed. 06Entrants keep their own engineeringThe arena records scores and reasoning, never the entrant's designs, data or models. 07Safety is a gate, not a scoreMachines meet the industrial standard or they do not compete. There is no trade-off available against it. 08A zero is publishedMost entrants will score zero on authority and settlement at first. Publishing that is the entire reason the arena is worth running. Safety requirements for entrant machines follow ISO 10218. The scoring conditions are defined by Botz Group and are not restated here.