How URKL's 32-to-16 qualifier is scored: fall recovery, locomotion, strikes and force tests, per EngineAI's rulebook
EngineAI's published rulebook (v2.0.0, March 2026) scores the in-person qualifier out of 100 base points plus 20 bonus. Whether the qualifier was played under these rules is unconfirmed.
URKL's organisers have published how teams are scored in the stage that cuts 32 teams to 16. This page explains that scoring as EngineAI's English rulebook describes it (version 2.0.0, last updated 2 March 2026, read on 9 November 2026). Whether the qualifier has been played, and under exactly these rules, is not confirmed; see our 4 November status page. Nothing here is a result.
WHERE THE QUALIFIER SITS
The rulebook describes several steps. An online qualifying stage, judged in simulation, narrows the field to 32 teams. Those teams then deploy their software on EngineAI's T800 robots in person. The step covered here is the in-person stage, which the rulebook calls the Qualifier Stage: 32 teams are split into four groups, and the top four in each group advance, giving 16.
HOW A TEAM IS SCORED: 100 BASE POINTS, UP TO 20 BONUS
In the Base Score segment each team gets exactly one official attempt, and must run three demonstrations in a fixed order: fall recovery, locomotion, then a demonstration of mimicked movements.
Fall recovery is worth 30 points: 15 for recovering from lying face down and 15 for recovering from lying face up. The robot must perform a joint reset and get back to a fighting stance without human help, inside a marked circle 8 metres across. Recovery within 3 seconds earns 15 points, 3 to 10 seconds earns 10, 10 to 20 seconds earns 5, and anything slower or a failed recovery earns nothing.
Locomotion is worth 30 points: teams move through obstacle terrain while keeping a fighting stance, on a route announced on match day. Points are awarded by rank: 30 for first and second, 24 for third and fourth, 18 for fifth and sixth, 12 for seventh and 6 for eighth.
Basic mimic ability is worth the remaining 40 points. The organiser supplies motion-capture data for a jab, a hook, a front kick and a spinning kick, and teams may train only on that data. Each of the four strikes is judged over five rounds of six seconds, from a starting distance of 3 metres, for accuracy, robustness and control; the robot must return to a fighting stance afterwards, and a knockdown voids that round. The jab, hook and front kick are worth 6 points each and the spinning kick 12, again awarded by rank. A taunt and a celebration movement, 5 points each, are scored for style; for these the organiser gives only reference videos and teams design their own.
The Bonus segment adds up to 20 points from two force tests on professional dynamometers: one for punching, one for kicking. Each team gets three attempts per test in a 30-second window after two unscored trial strikes, and its highest valid reading counts. Points go by rank, 10 for first, 8 for second, 6 for third and fourth, 4 for fifth and sixth. A strike must show complete form and hit the target to count, and an invalid strike still uses up an attempt.
THE SHORTCUT AND THE TIE-BREAKS
A team that wins both force tests and scores at least 32 base points advances directly, whatever the other results. Everyone else is ranked inside their group by base plus bonus score. Ties are broken first by the higher bonus score, then by the strike and movement categories in order.
Scores can be disputed on site within ten minutes of a test ending. Standings are to be published through EngineAI's official WeChat account, and a team may file one written appeal within 24 hours of publication.
WHAT THIS SAYS ABOUT URKL
Two things stand out. First, a team's qualifying score depends on measured physical output, such as recovery time and punch and kick force, as much as on how a fight looks. Second, the rules do not mention a single fight in the qualifier: it is a set of tests on identical T800 hardware, not a bracket. That matches the organisers' description of a competition between software teams on a standard platform.
WHAT IS UNCLEAR
The same rulebook is not consistent about the later rounds. Its overview describes a 16-team group stage followed by a double-elimination final for eight teams, while its knockout chapter describes a 16-team single-elimination bracket of best-of-three matches, five-minute rounds, and up to three T800 robots per team with any control method allowed, including remote control. Its own timeline (group stage in August and September, finals in December and January 2027) has also not matched what has been reported. Roboxing will treat the rulebook as the organisers' stated intent, not as the schedule, until EngineAI publishes dates.