The Head Referee owns the competition field: the rulings, the scores, and the referee crew that records them. It's a vetted role with a certification behind it — the credential comes from VEX / Global Robotics, and gainingSTEAM validates your certificate to add the role to your account. Request the role and we'll verify it from there.
It's the field's counterpart to the Judge Advisor: one owns what happens on the field, the other owns the judging room, and every event needs both.
The referee roles, the game rules, and the certification are defined by VEX and Global Robotics; gainingSTEAM helps Event Partners find and support the people who take them on.
What the Head Referee does on event day
- Makes the rulings. You're the final on-field authority at the event — scoring questions, rule violations, and anything a match throws at you that the crew can't resolve.
- Runs the referee crew. The scorekeeper referees count and record; you set the standard they count against, signal when the field is safe after each buzzer, and confirm scores before they're submitted. When one of them is unsure, they come to you — so being reachable and unhurried is part of the job.
- Keeps rulings consistent all day. The same situation has to get the same call in match 40 as it did in match 4. Consistency is what teams actually experience as fairness.
- Talks to teams and coaches. Explaining a call to a disappointed 4th-grader — and to their coach — is the part of the role no course fully prepares you for. Brief, kind, and final is the tone that works.
- Keeps the field moving. Matches run to a schedule; a slow field ripples through the whole day's agenda.
Where the rules actually live
The authoritative rules are the current season's game manual and the official Q&A, both published by VEX and Global Robotics in their library. Two habits worth building:
- Re-read the game manual's scoring and violation sections right before each event — the manual gets updates during the season.
- When a question isn't clearly settled by the manual, the Q&A is where the binding answer lives. Q&A answers are as official as the manual itself.
Working with the Event Partner
The Head Referee is the Event Partner's counterpart for everything on the field: how many scorekeeper referees to staff and on which shifts, field and equipment readiness, and how the match schedule fits the day. If you're an EP reading this side of the fence, see the Event Partner guides.
Growing into it
Almost nobody starts here. The usual path is a season or two as a scorekeeper referee — you learn the counting discipline, watch a Head Referee handle the hard calls, and find out whether you like the pressure.
When you're ready, earn the certification. For the current VEX IQ season it's the IQ Level Up: Head Referee and Scorekeeper Referee Certification: create a VEX PD+ account, complete the referee certification course, and your certificate lives in VEX PD+ to share with Event Partners. Then request the role and add the certification to your profile — see Volunteer certifications for how we record it.
Nebraska is short on certified referees more often than it's short on any other role. If you're on the fence, this is the one where saying yes changes whether an event can run.