Re: Use of Timeouts
 

All timeouts appear on the timers on the alliance walls.

Whether or not they appear on the big screen is up to the specific event, though at Lake Superior we started putting up the timer about halfway through eliminations. It looks like a normal match screen for the most part.

The ref panels should also display the timer during a timeout, but I don't recall seeing that. I might have just missed it though.

As of this year, the head ref panel will automatically start a timer after the end of a match that lets the head ref know how long the teams have to call in backups or use their timeout coupons.

Once the head ref receives a timeout coupon, he will instruct the scorekeeper at the FMS to initiate a timeout. Once the scorekeeper hits the button, the timeout starts.

This is something I see a lot. Teams will have their alliance captain standing with the head ref, coupon in hand, waiting until the last second to place it in the ref's hand. The refs I know are just fine with this arrangement.

Re: Use of Timeouts
 

The new timer is a separate screen on the head ref panel. In elims, it counts time from last field reset (i.e. labeled timeout and backup coupon windows), field timeouts, and alliance timeouts when called. It's quite nice, actually. Prior to this year, all of my head refs at least would gladly share their stopwatch face with an alliance captain waiting for 1:59. It's basically SOP to call it at the buzzer, and I haven't heard of anyone trying to make this difficult for teams.

Re: Use of Timeouts
 

I thought of this after the Dallas finals -

In the past, there have been many instances of alliances using their timeouts to let their opponents repair their robot. This is still allowed, but the use of "cascading" time outs, or time outs one right after the other, are expressly forbidden.

Now, because the rules this year:
1. Require two wins in the finals to crown a champion (no tiebreakers).
2. Have a minimum score of zero

It's possible that two finals alliances could agree to just sit out a match, and should something happen (autonomous didn't get shut off, a human player not fully in the loop), intentionally cause penalties to force a 0-0 match (or matches) until all robots are at full strength.

This obviously does require a modicum of trust between the teams involved, but at most events, that's not too hard to come by.

It's possible that this would anger the refs: they are a proud creature who don't appreciate when their own weapon is used against them. But neither alliance is delaying a match, and you can't force teams to field broken (or even working) robots.

Re: Use of Timeouts
 

Not that it makes this less valid, but none of this is new. Cascading timeouts have been prohibited for the better part of a decade now, and a perfect 0-0 tie would force a replay in any year other than this one.