OFFICIAL IRI RULE CHANGES
 

The rule changes for the 2009 IRI are very limited. We believe the game was well defined and has been well played all season, so we are only making a few minor tweeks for the IRI.

G14 - Cell Count Modification
This rule will not be utilized.
Score away!

G43 - Referee Discussions
Mentors may discuss issues with the head referee.

R11 - Weight
Teams are allowed a five (5) pound weight margin.
Be honest.

9.4.1 and 9.4.2 Alliance Selection
Draft order will be 1-8, 1-8, 8-1.
Alliance captains will select their three partners.
Alliance captains can decide who plays each match.
Alliance captains may mix and match Payload Specialists and Robots / Drive Teams as desired.
No other back up robots will be allowed.

Match Starting Signal
The match will begin at either
- Master of Ceremonies / Announcer saying "GO"
- Clock Starting
Whichever occurs FIRST

Be sure to attend the drivers meeting before the start of matches for any clarifications or modifications to the above.

Word from the Head Referee overrules anything written above. :)

Re: OFFICIAL IRI RULE CHANGES
 

like, like, like, like, and not really too big a deal.

liking them, simple and true IRI style, silly limiting g14

Re: OFFICIAL IRI RULE CHANGES
 

What a wonderful change. I was never a big fan of G14.

Re: OFFICIAL IRI RULE CHANGES
 

I applaud these changes. Nothing too complicated, usual IRI business.

Good luck, it's a week away!

-Nick

Re: OFFICIAL IRI RULE CHANGES
 

Sweet, now I expect high scores to be broken here. Great rule changes, can't wait to play.

Re: OFFICIAL IRI RULE CHANGES
 

Wasn't expecting much different (who liked G14 anyway?), glad to see these changes made!

i would like to take this time to mention that 1714 has a great human player who loves shooting from the outpost and makes 5000% of their shots please consider us as your backup pick! :D

Re: OFFICIAL IRI RULE CHANGES
 

IRI always gets everything perfect, nice job on the rule changes!

I can't wait to watch some Lunacy without G14.

Re: OFFICIAL IRI RULE CHANGES
 

As expected, no <G14> at IRI! ;)

Re: OFFICIAL IRI RULE CHANGES
 

The main reason for this rule change is so that if there is a slight delay between the MC/GA starting the match and the lead scorer pressing the "Match Start" button and a Payload Specialist grabs a moonrock, he/she is not assessed a penalty.

Thanks to the IRI Planning Committee for implementing this change, as it was one of my bigger annoyances from this season from a rules standpoint.

Re: OFFICIAL IRI RULE CHANGES
 

I don't think the G14 removal will have much effect until the elimination matches. There are still going to be many teams mindful of ranking points and won't go out and slaughter opposing alliances.

However, once we hit eliminations, I expect this is make quite an impact and we'll probably see at least a match or two break 151 (the high score which has stood since Week 1).

Re: OFFICIAL IRI RULE CHANGES
 

Excellent point Jon. I was thinking the same thing regarding the qualifying rounds. Although honestly, I don't think there will be many teams scoring on their own alliance to even out the scores. There are plenty of excellent bots here and any advantage in scoring will be hard fought.

Re: OFFICIAL IRI RULE CHANGES
 

I agree, I believe almost all the qualification rounds will be hard fought with little to no balancing of the scores. Even with that I really dislike the idea of trying to get "close" scores for ranking points. With supercells at play its just to risky gain a few more ranking points, I would rather have a win.

Re: OFFICIAL IRI RULE CHANGES
 

I haven't played much "high level" Lunacy, but I'd think with there likely being at least one powerhouse scorer on each alliance, matches should be roughly close enough that one probably can't afford to worry much about Ranking Points.

Re: OFFICIAL IRI RULE CHANGES
 

While some teams may elect to score on themselves, I expect that the inaccuracy of the real time score will keep that practice to a minimum (remember, we saw as much as 70 point swings from real-time to final score).

And most people seem to misunderstand the ranking system. Point differential has no bearing on ranking score, only the losing alliance's score. IE: if your alliance wins 200 to 35, it is no different than winning 36 to 35 from a RS standpoint. In either case, you will receive 35 ranking points for the match, but if you are leading by 100 points, you will feel much more confident as the clock winds down that it might be OK to score on your own trailer.

Re: OFFICIAL IRI RULE CHANGES
 

Do you have a match in particular with that swing? 70 points seems really unlikely unless someone missed an entire trailer of balls, or 3 Supercells.

Re: OFFICIAL IRI RULE CHANGES
 

The 70 point swing match was one that occurred at Palmetto during qualifications. We were only officially winning by 10 points or so and when the final score was put up we were up by ~70 points. The real time scoring is definitely unreliable, particularly to have a rule based on not outscoring your opponent by too much.

Re: OFFICIAL IRI RULE CHANGES
 

RTS isn't the only way to tell how you're doing. You can tell my how full your trailers are vs. your opponents trailers.

Re: OFFICIAL IRI RULE CHANGES
 

But its harder to look at all 6 in this game w/o losing focus on the match itself. =/ Coach's responsibility or the drivers'?

Re: OFFICIAL IRI RULE CHANGES
 

That would be the coach's job...

It's not like you're trying to take accurate ball counts, you just use the fill level of the trailers as a visual cue.

Ex: If I have one full trailer and two empty trailers and my opponent has two 1/4 full trailers and one empty trailer then I'm probably losing the match...