[EricH]

Let's take a look at the rule in question.

"The Head Referee has the ultimate authority in the ARENA during the event, but may receive input from additional sources, e.g. Game Designers, FIRST personnel, and technical staff. The Head Referee rulings are final. The Head Referee will not review recorded replays under any circumstances."

I'd like to call attention to some things that may be why this happened.

First, though: Head Ref rulings are final. That means that whatever the Head Ref rules is the call, even if the head ref is blatantly wrong (SVR 2008, for those that can remember...). We as competitors trust that the Head Ref knows the rules inside out, forwards, backwards, and sideways.

Now, the rest. There are some subtle grammar hints that make the rule a little less definite than it sounds.

"The Head Referee...may receive input from additional sources, e.g. [group of people]." e.g. is an abbreviation for "for example". So, the ref can, if he chooses, consult other persons or things, including but not limited to (the meaning of "for example") a group of people.

"The Head Referee will not review..." "Will not" is not "may not", or even "can not", which perhaps should be in there instead, to indicate that the referee is not allowed by FRC HQ to review video. "Will not" means that the referee, though not explicitly forbidden by the Game Manual to review video evidence, will not do so.

But what if the head ref chooses to interpret the "additional sources" from before to include video evidence submitted by a team or other entity?

There's the rub. If a team video is interpreted as an additional source, by the Head Referee, the Head Referee's decision is final. (Unless FRC HQ "overrules" later--SVR 2008.)



Now, having said all that, I agree that the Head Referee in question should not have reviewed the video evidence in the first place. FIRST's intent is no video replays, so the ref should not have considered it. The only exception to this, in my mind, is if the video shows a ref making a very clearly wrong call--clear to any reasonably astute observer, with nothing on either alliance and a solid knowledge of the Manual and its interpretations (say, a head ref from out of the country). Videos like that are very hard to come by, BTW, and usually it's easier to convince the referee with the Manual.