[pntbll1313]

Originally Posted by rwkling1

We were competing in eliminations (I won't state the teams) and one of our alliance partners were blamed of touching another robot that was in the safe zone. They called a technical foul on us, but it should have been only 3 pts, because (if I'm wrong, just say in the comments) if they were loading, that's 20 pts, but if they're just in the safe zone and getting prepared to load, it's 3, I may be wrong.

In the second match, one of their alliance partners was trying to block our full court shooter by extending an 84 inch blocker up, this is totally ok, but they weren't always in their auto zone. Myself and another alliance partner began to tell the ref during the match that he couldn't do that, that it was a technical foul.

For your first point, it is a judgment call by the refs. Anything that is consequential (ie slowing down their loading) is supposed to be called a technical foul. I believe they called this correctly because I bet the contact slowed their getting into position. If the bump did not affect them getting into position in any way, it should only be 3 pts.

Your second point is only slightly more clear cut. It is still somewhat a judgement call. I believe they went over this in the drivers meeting at all 3 Minnesota competitions I’ve been to this year. If the 84” robot was pushed out and tries to get directly back in, there is no foul. If they make any other move to pick up a disk, play defense, play offense, or interfere with other robots it will be called a 20pt technical. I watched a robot get called for 2 of the 20pt technicals in 1 match for driving outside of their auto zone at the MSHL tournament. The refs were definitely aware of this penalty so they either didn’t see it or deemed that they were pushed out and trying to get back in.

I’m sorry you feel your season ended because of referee calls. You guys had a great bot and were good competition!