[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by magnets

The No part is very clear. I understand very well that we are not allowed to use angled bumpers. The same sentence used this year to disallow angled bumpers was used last year to allow angled bumpers, which is the bad part.

Most teams don't read every single q and a response. When they see the blue box below r22 that has the sentence used to allow angled bumpers in 2013 (in q42 of the 2013 q and a), they will assume that angled bumpers will be allowed again. However, the meaning of the words "overtly deviate" has changed, and it would be nice to let teams know that this definition has changed so that they can design around the new meaning, as opposed to the 2013 version.

I'm not trying to contest the fact that the definition of a very, very vague sentence has changed from one year to another. r22's blue box is pretty ambiguous, and the q and a clarifies it. I just really feel that it's not going to be clear to a team who reads the manual, but not every q and a response. But I guess that's their problem, just like it was our problem that we didn't ask a q and a, and assumed the 2013 interpretation would stay.

Then isn't it that team's fault for not reading the Q&A for clarification on (what you see as) an ambiguous subject?