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Update 19 is out.

Drivers meeting on Thursday morning at 9:15 is cancelled. Drivers meeting will be at 6:30 on Thursday night.

For the elimination rounds you are allowed 3 extra pit people by the field. Only one adult is permitted to be in this crew.

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And a direct link for those wanting to read about all the good things:

http://www2.usfirst.org/2006comp/Upd..._Apr-19-06.pdf

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Great idea!

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The update specifies three additional people per alliance team. At first reading, I thought that meant a total of three for the entire alliance. Now I'm not sure what it means.

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it sounds like they are going to allow three more people per alliance ( or per three teams) this would be one more person for each team on the Field in between matches to help out with carrying the robot and queuing it. though there are no stipulations to whether their can be three or two people for one team helping them que up between matches (aka. helping repair the robot for any reason that may come up) as long as their is still only a maximum of 15 per alliance between matches.
at least thats how I understanding that rule.
I could be totally off >___<

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I'm not so sure I like this rule if it only means 3 extra people per alliance.

At regional events, you could easily take the robot back to the pits for repairs, where the whole team can be and can work.

It's not the case for us, but I believe there are some teams where the "pit" team is different than the "drive" team and now if something happens to their robot, especially on Einstein, there is NO way the robot can make it back to the pit even with a 6 minute time-out. So, the "drive" team who might not be the most familiar with the electrical and mechanical portions of the robot have to fix it.

I for sure can see that FIRST doesn't want lots and lots of extra people down around the field, but we all know how much space there is, even if they have to stand off to the side a bit... What is 6 more people per alliance (if it's 3 people per alliance verses 9 people if it's 3 per team) going to hurt?

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Actually, at both of our regionals we weren't allowed to leave the field during the eliminations at any point. All of our repairs had to be made on the field.

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To me, that reads three additional people per team, for a total of nine per alliance.

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That happened to us at our first regional, but shouldn't have happened:

http://forums.usfirst.org/showpost.p...72&postcount=2

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Interestingly, this question was not asked until Friday of Week 3, and was not answered until the following Monday. So many teams would not have been aware of the option until Week 4 or 5 -- or not at all. Many event staff and volunteers would not have been aware of the option either.

At both of the events where I volunteered (STL and Waterloo) teams were told their robots could not leave the field area during eliminations. Now I see this was incorrect.

Probably not an issue for the Championship, since there is clearly not enough time to return to the pits during divisional or Einstein eliminations.

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I hope you are right.

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If they meant one more person per team, they wouldnt have even needed to include a different way of stating it from regionals, since that was how it was then.

I think it's pretty clear that they mean each team on the alliance gets to have three extra members on the field.

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i think its pretty clear, each alliance team gets 3 extra people. since there are three teams on an alliance this means 9 people for each alliance and 18 extra people on the field :ahh:

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Actually 36 extra people, since elimination matches alternate. Just a little more foot traffic for the queuers to manage.

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The extra people is nothing new to championships, i believe they have been giving out "Team Support" stickers since 04.

It is 3 people PER team, total of 9 per alliance

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Now what about the alliance captain? Is this included in the 9 extra people?

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See Section 8.4.1. The Alliance Captian must be a student member of the team. The Alliance Captain must be one of the designated team member positions (DRIVER, HUMAN PLAYER, or COACH if the COACH is a student). The Alliance Captain is not an additional team member beyond the four designated team members already on the field during the match.

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Although that doesn't mean the person you send out on the field to pick an alliance must be one of the drive team necessarily.

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Thats funny, because at the UTC regional I was the alliance captain, and at the time I was not a member of the drive team. The head referee told us that only the students with the bibs at the time of the selection could wear the bibs and must remain on the field at all times during the eliminations.

I stayed on the field during all of eliminations, and no one said a word.

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Also, if the drive team wasn't as familiar with the robot as a pit crew, just give the pit crew the drive teams badges, and let the pit crew work on it, until the time of the match.

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That'd work at regionals, but not in Atlanta, because you cannot get onto the Dome floor where the fields are without badges.

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But you could send someone on to the floor with the media pass, then have them and one of the drive team members switch badge with media pass, or is that lawyering the rules?

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Kim,

This was clarified by FIRST and Dave after the UTC regional was over.

I think the rule was much better defined in prior years (in 2001 and 2002, rule <T10> indicated that “Alliance captains must be part of the field crew for the team.” ) and I personally disagree with Mr. Lavery's view in his response (I think he is mentally inserting...) but that is now water under the bridge and not worthy of public debate...

We acted in good faith based on the rules as we understood them during the UTC regional. Our "extra" alliance captain did not enter the "alliance zone" and this was never questioned, to the best of my knowledge, by any referee.

It has been made clear by the above references that we had misinterpreted intentions of the game designers and we will act accordingly, good fortune willing, in Atlanta.

Mike