The competition gets students excited about science and technology. In each, four teams work together as an alliance and try to achieve as high a score as possible. All teams in an alliance share the alliance score. However, during the qualification matches some teams may earn additional bonus points that apply only to their teams. During the qualification matches, randomly assigned teams are partnered to form alliances just prior to the start of each match.
Alliances last only for the duration of a match.
Each team is assigned to one of four divisions and participates only with other teams in the same division. All teams are ranked after playing an equal number of qualification matches. Following the conclusion of the qualification matches, the top ranked teams form alliances and go on to compete in the elimination matches. Alliances formed for the elimination matches stay together for the remainder of the event. Each alliance is composed of five teams.