Questions about certain calls at UCF
 

Ok at UCF this weekend there were somethings I have questions about:

1. If any of you saw 179 coasting back after time was called and thought it counted, well I'm pretty sure it doesn't (I was told by a referee). Why not? I thought in past years it was allowed to coast back (I think?)

2. The rule for the loading zone infractions (the 30 point one) is only if the robot that is the victim "has the intent of getting a tetra" which I can see makes sense but is subjective to interpretation. I was manning the autoload station and I thought I saw some uncalled contact.

3. This year if you come down and touch a tetra after the match is over it counts and if your arm comes down and stacks a tetra it doesn't count. I remember from last year that if you came down after time was called from hanging it didn't count (yea different years I know but alot of people were confused on the changing standard so to speak).

These arn't complaints just some observations I made during UCF this weekend. The referees were always consistent with calls and did a very good job. The first one is the one that kinda bothered me the most.

Re: Questions about certain calls at UCF
 

I agree about the coasting. After we did that 386 (our ally in that match) argued your same point with the ref. I stayed out of it cuz I wanted to stay on their good side :)
We won that match anyway and it never mattered if it counted. But I think they should reverse that ruling and allow it. It's too inconsistent with the past and actually makes it easier to score the field after it's settled. Instead of counting on the ref's to have photo finish memory.

Re: Questions about certain calls at UCF
 

Is the arm still touching the tetra when it sags and stacks? If so, that's your answer.

Re: Questions about certain calls at UCF
 

No Joe I don't think so. I think i remember a match where a team was perfectly positioned over a goal and their arm dropped the tetra on after time expired and was not touching. It did not count.

Re: Questions about certain calls at UCF
 

actually if your arm or some part of your robot is touching an already scored tetra it de-scores it. that happened to us at our regional. when the drivers rushed back to get the 10 point bonus for being behind the line our arm was up so we didn't receive points for a tetra we touched even though it already had others stacked on it. it was sad

Re: Questions about certain calls at UCF
 

Yes you're right. Your case is different from this though because your bot ran into the tetra during the match (right before it ended).

Re: Questions about certain calls at UCF
 

Any kind of interference in a loading zone is a 30 pt penalty. FIRST removed the section that said "with intent to load a tetra"

You should be able to coast back.

And if your robot is touching a tetra of it's own color, all tetras of that color above the one touching are not counted either.

Re: Questions about certain calls at UCF
 

I think the field should be scored after everything has stopped moving. Thats the way it always has been. If that wasn't the case, then last year hanging robots wouldn't need locking mechanisms or anything else of the sort. I remember a team that had all their pneumatics on single solienoids that defaulted to pulling the robot up and hanging. That was always counted. In 2002 robot after robot would coast into the endzone and it would be counted.

I don't know why it has been changed this year. It doesn't make sense. Its much harder to score the game right when it ends than the field at rest. The robot which caps a tetra after the match ends should get the point as long as it isn't touching it at the end.

Now as for touching a tetra that was already capped when the match ends probably means it shouldn't be capped. That was the way it has been. It doesn't make sense in terms of what counts, but it does for ease of scoring in the same way that the judges should be scoring the match after all the robots stop moving.

Re: Questions about certain calls at UCF
 

I dont know about regionals you've been to, but I've never seen refs jump out onto the field while robots were still moving, so I don't know how you would score the match before everything has come to rest.

Re: Questions about certain calls at UCF
 

This is wrong. As of Update #15, G15 still says that the 30 point penalty applies only to a robot recieving/retreiving a tetra. The only change in wording is to clarify that this recieving process does not end until the robot has left the loading zone. Thus, G15 still protects the introduction of tetras and is not intended to create a perpetual safe zone.

Re: Questions about certain calls at UCF
 

I gues you're right. I invented that section of the rules.

I am almost 100% sure that during the drivers meeting Aidan said that FIRST had made a rule change to state that any interference in the loading zone is now a 30 pt penalty regardless of intent.

Re: Questions about certain calls at UCF
 

Oddly enough the same thing happened for with us, but it counted, i was in the middle of the field with 10 seconds left and went full throttle into the wall to get back in time, i did get back over the buzzer but at about 2 seconds left i was touching the stacked tetra on our goal, and yet they still counted it as stacked, so it depends on refs calls....