A referee / Inspector comment
 

Entanglement:

When inspecting the inspectors look for loose wores and other items that pose a danger of entanglement to other robots. We look close for items that are designed to entangle.

During the heat of battle robots get "hooked up" often on common parts that are not a real entanglement issue. Just part of the game that encourages physical play. After all if n robot touches another robot the game would be very dull ( remember some of the FIRST games ).

Sub-Bot: Often called placebo Bot

The intent is not to allow a non functioning partner to put you into battle alone. The unit as Mac said was as sub/Sub Bot and was very good at running around and getting in the way to help their partner score. It could not directly score any ball.

Sorry that you had to face it several times. This is often called the "luck of the draw". You could have as easily been their partner.

This element ( sub-bot ) is needed since we went to two/two format. As robots get better and are improved, you will see less and less of the sub-bot. The sub-bot is not a choice at the championship.

Pinning:
There are four refs watching the matches applying the game rules as fair as possible. In 20 matches there was only one time pinning was even close. Open field pushing is not pinning. Only if the robot is against a non-movable game structure for 5 seconds is it considered pinning. The pinner would get a warning to back off. This was not the case as they pinned for less than 3 seconds before the pinnee was able to get free, thus not being pinned.

Thanks to all the teams that read the PRE-INSPECTION form. That really speeded up the process for the teams that had done their homework. It will be much faster next competition as you have a sticker.

Your team will be asked what is "New" or "Different". A quick safety review and a pressure check of the pneumatics is all that will be needed in addition to weight and size.

if it is random as you say it is, then the sub-bot isnt doing anything to make it fair. Sure, its good and all for the team who is matched up 3 times with broken robots that dont show up, but what about the other side? what about the team who is matched up against those 3 broken robots? they have to compete against the sub-bot 3 times! this sort of competition is one where you test your skills against all other teams. When the opposing team's robot doesnt work, it just means your skill is better then theirs. When you put in the sub-bot over and over, though, you are now comparing your skill to only that robot.

when you make something random, it isnt right to weight it in a certain direction just because you dont like the results.

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They didn't know which bot's were not going to work when the pairings were made.
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