<T19> Cannot Offer Time-Out To Opponent

[aaeamdar]

<T19>An
opposing ALLIANCE may not offer their unused TIME-OUT to their opponent.

(Note: please consult the manual section 9 for the full text of the rule.)

It seems to me that this is a new rule to 2008 and I'm wondering if it means what I think it means. It seems to suggest that if you want to offer your opponents the opportunity to fix their robot, you are unable to do so. Now, I remember back in... 2006 I think it was at Chesepeake, and this very scenario happened. Namely, one alliance in the finals had a broken robot, and needed time to fix it, but had already used their time-out. The other alliance called their time-out to allow them to do so, which was (correctly, I think) hailed as extremely graciously proffesional and a great thing to do.

So, am I misinterpreting the rule? I mean, I guess you could say "oh, our robot needs fixing. Look at that speck of dust, we need to clean it." And call your time-out. Maybe the internt of the rule is to keep the game going? But it seems weird to laud the people who take a given action and then make that action illegal in following years.

Any other thoughts/interpretations?
-Paul Dennis

[Uberbots]

I think i means that you cant 'give' them your timeout so they can call it.
but i could be wrong.

[Tetraman]

It just means you can not give your TO card to an opponent alliance and let them use it whenever...namely other matches of competition if they surpass you.

You can use your TO to allow opponents to repair. There is nothing that says the user of the card has to actually be repairing a robot during a TO. (except when it comes to time, but no one other than the TO user can say when you are done.) All that this rule implys is now that you are given a TO card, you can not hand your card to an opponent.

[Joe Ross]

This has been in place since last year. See this thread for a previous discussion. http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54776