During the climax of the world championship, VEX Robotics announced the next season’s 2025-2026 game: Push Back.
Push Back is played on a twelve-foot square field, featuring four long, horizontal goals. Each robot starts with one preloaded three-inch-wide block. There are a total of 88 blocks, with 44 for each alliance: red and blue.
Every new VEX game has a unique set of rules and strategies. Robotics teams across the world then work vigorously to adapt to a landscape of strategy and design, facing challenges along the way.
For the first time in VEX Robotics, there will be no possession limits, meaning robots can carry as many blocks as possible.
Fourth Form Robotics member Brandyn Luong believes that a lack of possession limits will make robotics less fun.
“Without a limit, you’re going to find a robot that takes up all your blocks, so you can’t do anything in the game,” Luong said. “It’s just going to make matches look very boring because the other alliance won’t be able to do anything.”
Push Back’s game pieces bring discussion about both the robots and the goals. There are four goals on the field: two on the sides and two stacked in the middle. The blocks—plastic rectangular sleeves—can easily be pushed in and out of them. Luong believes that this will cause an issue.
“I think most matches will be pretty predictable.”
BRANDYN LUONG ’27
“I think the fact that there are two long goals is an issue because there’ll be one person camping one goal and one person camping the other goal. I don’t think there’s going to be much activity in the game unless you’re really down and you have to do something,” Luong said. “The goals are like a Newton’s cradle where if you hit one ball, all the other balls end up falling out, so some people would say it’s a design flaw from the VEX Game Design Committee, but I think that it was partly intentional.”
Push Back seems to be a game that may become stale, similar to some previous games, in which everybody follows one premier strategy.
“I don’t think we’ll really be able to do anything in this game,” Luong said. “De-scoring is kind of an issue, but if you’re on one side, you can’t de-score the balls out. They have to go somewhere, so you can have your robot block it. I think most matches will be pretty predictable.”
For the endgame, VEX Robotics has taken a feature similar to a previous game, Spin Up, of the 2022-2023 season. They have brought the ‘parking’ mechanic as a way of gaining a few points in the final seconds of the game; if both robots of an alliance are parked in the alliance’s spot, more points can be scored. This, however, leaves the goals unattended.
“It’s another game object they’ve pulled from Spin Up. It’s a pretty big space, so I think bots will be able to park, but the issue is getting two bots parked at once. You would need a bot archetype to have another bot parked on it, and it’s difficult because you would need a really flat bot,” Luong said.
With a new game announced and strategies already emerging, only the early competitions–and time–will tell what becomes the “meta.” Only once Push Back pushes its way to Worlds will we know what this new game shapes up to be.
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