Quote:
Originally Posted by hg273
At our first regional in San Diego, we had no problem using an iPad for alliance selection.
When I got on the field for alliance selection in Oregon, I was told by the FTA to turn it off and put it away. I immediately referred him to the GDC ruling, so they went and checked the rule, after which the iPad use was ok'd. Later on in alliance selection, a team asked their head scout who to pick by using the in house mic. The MC told the captain that that was against the rules, so again, we pointed to the CDC update.
I know in Seattle, Blair expressly said that no electronics were allowed. I think this trend results mostly from personal opinions and commonly held misconceptions. As FIRST has expanded it's unfortunate that there is this much inconsistency across the regional events.
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I think the issue is that in prior years, electronic and other aids were expressly disallowed in the rules. For quite a number of years, actually. There's a lot of people in FIRST who've been doing this a long time and you tend to get certain rules and things stuck in your head after five years and dozens of regionals all working the same.
That, and as awesome as Blair is, I don't know if he and other MC's are following the updates and Q&A as religiously as some most teams do. So what's probably called for is better internal communication on FIRST's side, with a primer and important updates being distributed to MC's and others that aren't necessarily keeping up with the in-season rule changes.