I was there for the match when the carpet got pulled up. I got to see what happened both from our booth and I got a close-up view of the carpet.
I think everyone can agree that there was some damage done to the carpet, this shouldnt even be a point for debate. However, I agree (after much thought) that this was not reason for a DQ. However I do think that the carpet being insecurely held down caused it to bunch under Rhodewarrior. This helped them stay in the corner.
Ricksta-
How can you say you were pinned? It's pretty obvious to everyone that we were pulling you out of the homezone. From a strategy perspective it would have been stupid for us to hold you there. Just think about it, also it is visible in that picture that you would have had to be driving into the corner to pull up the carpet like that.
The most annoying thing about that match was Ken (the head ref) counting us for a DQ. All he had to look down to see our wheel spinning AWAY from Rhodewarrior. Our driver even detached and pulled away to show him our intentions. He just kept on counting, oblivious to what was actually going on.
We had a match where our battery fell out of the robot. Sigh... Everyone's worst nightmare. It wasn't fastened in correctly by a rookie on our pitcrew. What made this humiliating moment worse was when we looked up and found our distinguished head-ref pointing and laughing at our robot. How graciously profesional. I thought this was off-season? This was my first offseason comp, but I'd heard the rules would be relaxed, and everyone would be there just to have fun. I found this not to be the case. The referees were stricter than at any FIRST Regional I'd been to in my 3 years of competition. Overall it was a fun weekend, but we had a couple of moments where I, and several others I talked to, were appalled by the actions and rulings of the referees.
I hold no hard feelings against 121. We enjoyed a good match working with them in the qualifiers. We also had fun in some very competitive matches against them later on in the day. I just can't wait for next year's competition when we can play with/against you guys again!
I hope you feel the same way. Ricksta, you came over angry at us for shutting you out in that qualifier match. The truth was we couldn't have beaten you any other way. Our options were to lose, or to play a defensive match and possibly win. You guys have a great robot, I enjoyed finally seeing it in person and marveling at it's simplicity. I still wonder why you didn't just drive into the endzone and at least score 10 points for your alliance. And it was the hardest fought 0 score I ever won, the most fulfilling too
I'm sorry for ranting, these are just some of the things that have been bouncing around in my head. Please feel free to post how off-base I am.
As for now, I'm just going to add this weekend to my previous experiences and prepare for the next step... UTC 2003!