No matter who won or lost, or whether the foul in question would have made a difference to the final outcome of the match, all teams that play the game should have the right to be fairly refereed. From what I've seen, the "question box" isn't treated as a way to appeal a ruling, it is treated as a way to inform the teams of the referees final ruling, with no chance of that decision being reviewed or reversed. In the absence of a legitimate appeals process, those teams who feel they have been wronged have little other recourse than to post their evidence on CD, let the community decide, and provide the referee community with an example of how they got it wrong or right, as the case may be.
I have no bias in this particular match, but I'm glad to give my analysis, just as an intellectual exercise. I will say up front that in judgement calls, I'm going to favor the non-aggressor. This is often how professional sports refs make judgement calls, according to books I've read by professional sports referees.
First I'll say that in this particular case, just presenting pictures as evidence is not going to cut it. Without video, the evidence is inconclusive to make a ruling. The
video available isn't super clear, as it is from rather far away. Links to closer video might change my analysis. But here goes:
The first thing I noticed was that at least two refs were waving the flags almost constantly. Until I read at least two threads, I couldn't even figure out what the penalty was that was in dispute. I finally decided to ignore the refs and observe the robots. I first looked for pinning penalties. I could find no instances of pinning for over 5 seconds, as all of the robots could have escaped by simply backing off from the pushing contest. What I saw was the blue robot attempting to hold position to block the tall shooter (legal action) and two red robots trying to push the blue robot out of blocking position (legal action). At :42, the blue robot pushes a red defender into the red shooter (not illegal). At 1:04, the red robots work together to push the blue robot out of blocking position (legal action). That the blue robot is no longer blocking is evidenced by a 3 point shot at 1:06. At 1:08, the red robots, still working together, force the blue robot to commit a "too tall" penalty, by pushing the blue robot over the auto line. Now comes the point where a judgement must be made. I see the blue robot continuously attempting to return to the auto zone, and finally succeeding at 1:19. At 1:06, the blue robot ceased being a blocker, and became the victim of the red robots forcing it commit a penalty. So no penalty called on the blue robot. The blue robot continuously attempts to return to the autozone for over 10 seconds. The red robots prevent blue from doing so. So I see a technical foul by red. At 2:00 the blue robot voluntarily drives out of the auto zone before lowering their net, which is a penalty.
So, in short, pushing and shoving is fine. When blue is blocking the red shooter, red's actions are double defensive (defense against a defender). When blue is no longer blocking the shooter, red forcing blue to commit a penalty (pushing the robot out of the auto and preventing blue from returning) has no justification. When blue drives over the line voluntarily with the net up, blue commits a penalty.
From all the flag waving by the referees, I have no idea what penalties were actually called. I also give them the benefit of the doubt, as I had to watch the video numerous times to really see what was going on. Honestly, this just makes me want to volunteer to be a referee. If I did, though, my wife would kill me. Going to two regionals as a participant already eats away enough of my vacation days.