Quote:
Originally Posted by Alpha Beta
(Post 1056230)
I think it would be hard to keep a spring loaded deployment legal when integrated with a ramp. ::rtm:: I can't wait to see if someone finds a legal way to integrate the concept at champs. :cool:
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The spring force is converted to kinetic energy in the wheels, motors and entire minibot by the time Deployment starts (minibot is over the platform) so I think it is as legal as ramp deployments in general. Of course, I don't interpret the kinetic energy ramp deployments have before Deployment starts as incidental (like G19's blue box says) so interpret all of them as illegal. I interpret incidental kinetic energy as the wheels & motors free spinning, not kinetic energy of the entire minibot (most importantly the battery) moving.
Of course, my interpretation doesn't matter.
The GDC does not perform design reviews, so it is de facto legal unless a head ref says it is illegal (then tower is disabled). As a spectator of events (live or webcast), I want ramps to be legal since they are a really cool, creative idea by teams like 56, 190, 233, 368, etc... and implemented/optimized by
many great teams. Titanium's is the first swinging arm ramp (most are flop down or extend) I've seen, great job. Pink did the correct thing by asking the Q&A (right when regionals started) in a grey area . GDC probably should have provided some interpretation, even changing the blue box under G19 if necessary. The Q&A shouldn't review every design, just a few unique ones with grey areas in the rules like the ramps this year, 469's last year (pretty clearly legal), 190's 2008 bot (
they still have a sense of humor about it), etc... so it is not left up to the head ref at their first event. Maybe they should just review all 190's bot's before ship since they always strive to create a unique, outside the box concept, robot ;)
OK, enough of that rant, it has been building for over a month. Since the spring thing was brought up I couldn't resist (I've had conversations like this before and mentioned it on webcast chat rooms but I have never seen a similar opinion expressed on CD). I don't want to hijack the thread. To debate legality of ramps back and forth is unproductive. I have my interpretation, everyone can have their own interpretation,
no one is right or wrong because it is not clear. Since there haven't been any tower disablements (probably would have heard about it here) it is de facto legal. Since I will be watching Curie this week, I hope to see a quad ramp match with 1986, 368, 1678 and some other ramp bot (that we probably haven't seen yet) beacuse that would be awesome :cool: Curie might just be the "Minibot Division" between these all ramps and 2081's timing challenge (without ramps) in the pit.
