pic: Tower Mishap
 

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I was waiting for this to happen! I saw plenty of people come close at both NYC and SBPLI. Did it effect the outcome of the match at all?

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Team 254's human player succeeded (probably not the right word) at doing this in San Diego. We got a red card for it, resulting in one of the two matches that we've lost this year (the other being another red card in an elimination match).

Re: pic: Tower Mishap
 

Why is this a red card?

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It is a red card for interfering with mini-bot deployment but only if its on the opposing tower. We did this to our own tower in OKC!

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How did they get it off? I would think by taking the pole off the tower completely, but I don't want to assume anything.

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My guess would be a box cutter or similar implement.

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15 seconds with a scissor perhaps?

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they unscrew the pole and lift it up. then put it back in.

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At WPI we just sliced them off with box cutters, it happened like this once and got stuck on top another time

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this hasn't happened as frequently as i thought it would this year. kudos to the human players

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This happened at ann arbor but just a little different. You know that little green light on top of the towers, you know what happens when you hit it with a tube? It falls over on it's side. The funny thing is that it still worked and our alliance got minibot points for it. (A minibot did go up it)

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This happened at OKC in the finals. It so happened that both teams got red carded, the blue alliance was for hitting another robot in the zone, and the red alliance got red carded for getting the tube on the tower because it was preventing deployment. The red card against the red alliance was eventually taken away when it was determined that the tube was thrown by the red alliance, so they did it to themselves.

They removed the tube with scissors, took them two seconds.

Re: pic: Tower Mishap
 

254's mishap with the tower was notable in that they both knocked the lights off of their own tower and rung the opponents tower... with the same tube. It was impressive.

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That was at the Livonia District. We had a few tubes go over the towers. Field crew just unbolted the towers, and took them down.

We also lost a set of green lights, which were plugged in after the tower was unbolted and taken down.

The field crew was really fast at it too. Didn't take long.

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It happened at CT Regional as well. It landed on their own alliance pole, so no penalties incurred. As stated above, you can't remove the pole because of the wires going down through, plus the poles are locked in. The ladder supplied by FIRST isn't tall enough for someone to climb up & remove over the top. We just sliced it off.

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The wires can be disconnected from the base, and the poles can be removed. It just takes a few minutes to unscrew the covering at the base and get to them, disconnect the wires going up to the top of the tower, lift the pole, and then put everything back together. Easily done by two people in five minutes or less.

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I'm well aware of how it comes apart. I built the CT field. It's easier to just cut it & save about 5 minutes.

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That was Adam. He's generally pretty skilled (he was 254's human player in 2009 as well, and was deadly). I'm just surprised it only happened once- in practice they had to take that first tower down because he was breaking it so often until he improved.

Since that double red card he's been rethinking his technique, which is good for all people involved in the lab. At least now if he's practicing and he hits you accidentally you don't get bruises the next day. We were very impressed that in 254's first match at San Diego he threw a tube across the field and landed it on their claw. People from GRT were asking me if he had practiced that.....

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Twice at KC, the green light was hit by a tube and flew halfway across the field. :p They had to get out the dance music and a ladder to put it back, and it wasn't working afterwards at first.

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I've put together 2 fields and helped break down 2 fields as well. As a field supervisor you don't want to waste a full round's worth of time to break down a tower and put it back together. That's IF the anchors all cooperate around the tower base and everything goes smoothly. You also take the chance that something won't be connected correctly (or at all) when putting the tower back together...which would put you even further behind on the schedule. If the field can't be dissembled and reassembled in under 2 minutes, you should just be cutting the tube off the base of the tower. Now if the tube is up top, get the ladder out as soon as it happens so you're ready to go when the match is over. :)

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This also happened at GSR.