[NickTosta]

Without being able to view the deleted posts I'm not entirely sure what else is known or exactly what it is we are arguing about, but given that I was on the field the entire time I did see quite a few things.


1. The air compressor

At some point, possibly during the quarterfinals, I was standing behind one of the driver stations (I believe it was the alliance station below the scoreboard, I was waiting with our control board for the next match) when I saw a mentor or maybe a student from 522 (the RoboWizards) carrying an enormous air compressor around the field, presumably coming from the pits. At the time I knew that having an off-board air compressor was legal, so I didn't think much of it. I just kind of laughed to myself thinking "wow, they must have to keep A TON of air on-board to power that piston!"

At some point during the Semis I was standing right next to their robot, so I was able to get a good look at it. Most of the inside of their robot is dominated by an enormous air tank - this thing was like as wide as their robot and probably like 6 or 7 inches in diameter. Just an enormous black air tank. I remember asking them if that was really an air tank, and they said they needed that much air to power that huge piston on the front of their robot. I just remember shrugging it off thinking "wow, that's pretty neat, and that explains why they needed the huge air compressor."

So, basically, I can confirm that they did bring in some enormous 120v air compressor, but I am totally uncertain as to the extent that it was used.


2. The questionable balances

Once again, given that I was on the field the entire time I had an excellent view of everything that transpired.

The first balance in the quarterfinals the two long robots were on the bridge perfectly, but 522 was at that strange angle and appeared to be leaning on the side railing of the field. I was standing by the corner of the field near the robot entrance to the floor there, so I had a perfect view both of the balanced bridge, 522 leaning on the railing, and the refs inspecting the balance.

My opinion was that the bridge shouldn't have counted as balanced, as 522's bumper was up against the railing. However, I saw the refs touching 522s bumper and the railing and I think they may have thought that 522's robot wasn't actually being supported by the railing, merely that their robot had just come to rest near it. That is certainly a possibility and something I can't confirm or deny based only on that I saw it from a distance, but again, from my perspective on the floor there it looked like 522 was on the railing and the balance shouldn't have counted.

The other balance, where 522 fell off the bridge and 125 was on the railing, I don't think there is much confusion about that one. However, I can again confirm that I saw 125's bumper on top of the railing, and I would have been absolutely shocked if they counted that one.


3. GraciousPro posting from an anonymous account

Guys, sometimes (read: almost always) this community is unnecessarily hostile to an individual that wishes to express an unpopular opinion, or wants to raise a possibly valid point against a team that is generally held in high esteem. Now, because the posts have been deleted, I am unsure as to whether or not GraciousPro expressed his opinions in an unnecessarily angry or derogatory fashion. Obviously, if he did then I can understand the resistance against this anonymous account, and I would agree that the posts should be deleted depending on the severity. However, if he was merely bringing up the issue of the possibly illegal events that transpired at New York, and was doing so in a fair and level way, I don't see why it should matter that he chose to do so from an alternate account.

Again, because of the sometimes hostile response to any member "rocking the boat" so to speak, I can totally understand why he would choose to post from an alternate account. I don't think that posting from an anonymous account is a reason to discount what he is saying, though. In fact, I would argue that someone posting anonymously would be much, much more honest and open than someone posting with their real name and team name.

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Also, does anyone know what happened with that whole "technical timeout" called by the lead robot inspector? I am totally in the dark about what happened there.