[Jared Russell]

I wish the MC had done a better job of explaining exactly what had happened to the arena, because immediately after 1323 left the field there was a lot of rampant speculation and accusations thrown in the referee's direction. People always look for a single person or entity to blame for an unfortunate situation, but in this case it is not clear who made the final call, and with what information the call was made. It was a bad situation all around.

I am thoroughly impressed with how 1323 has handled all of this this. They are truly a class act and handled their misfortune far more graciously than I would have. Their season ended with them being forced to remove their robot from the field in the middle of a tight semifinal series, with what turned out to be at least two Wild Card spots awaiting their alliance in the Finals. While they would have had to defeat the #1 seeded alliance in back to back matches to advance to the finals, the 1323/846/2135 alliance was more than capable of such a feat. As soon as alliance selections had finished, I knew that the semifinals were going to be tough. They posted big scores in the quarterfinals, and we narrowly escaped with a victory in SF1-1 thanks in no small part to 1323's versatile offensive play and defense.

As far as what happened: please do not jump to conclusions on this. I was a firsthand observer for much of this incident and am myself confused at who made which decisions.

I was standing right behind 1323's student when they handed their coupon to the head referee. I was actually with 971's student alliance captain adjacent to the question box at the time, ready to turn in the #1 seed's timeout if called upon (254 was busy fixing a gearbox issue and we knew we might need a few minutes).

After SF2-1 (the match preceding our next match), I saw the 1323 student approach the ref with a coupon/coupon(s) in their hand (didn't notice which) along with the captain's armband. The student spoke to the head ref and gave him a coupon, and after a brief conversation that I could not overhear, he turned around and started to head back to the pit. He did not take 3 steps before I stopped and asked him, "Did you guys just call your timeout?", to which he replied, "Yes". I do not know what exactly the exchange with the ref entailed, but it was absolutely clear that the student thought he had called a timeout. At the time I actually thought to myself, "Sweet, we didn't have to use our own timeout." 1323 called the timeout to fix a drive encoder cable that is only used during autonomous mode - certainly not a fatal failure by any stretch of the imagination.

Five-ish minutes later, and the #1 and #4 seeded alliances are getting back into the queuing line to take to the field for SF1-2. I do not know if there was any interaction between the head ref and a representative from 1323 in this intervening period. Once in line, the head ref comes to 1323 and asks which robot is being replaced. I was standing right next to RC, who is surprised and tries to clarify that he wanted a timeout, not a backup robot. The head ref reluctantly sounds like he will let 1323 continue to play at this point in time.

I return to my seat assuming the match will soon begin, but there is now a 15+ minute field delay. I assumed it was FMS issues (the field had a number of problems over the weekend, but that's a topic for another thread) until I heard it announced that 670 was preparing to enter the match. I was as confused as everyone else. When I saw that 1323 was being told to leave the field, I attempted to get to the front of the crowd to talk to the head referee. I said that I was standing right behind the student and that the student thought he had turned in the timeout coupon, and that it was an honest mistake. The ref asserted that the student confirmed it was for a backup robot and then asked me, "Student or mentor?" When I said "Mentor", he said "I cannot talk to you". (It is not clear to me that this is a correct interpretation of T13, but I then knew that my words weren't going to change this situation and I walked away).

Despite what is posted on the FIRST website regarding SF1-2, 1323 left and was replaced by 670. They did an admirable job, but it wasn't enough. It is hard to overcome losing your alliance captain.

A student made a simple mistake, likely due to ambiguous communication between him and the head ref in a panicked moment. This should have been a harmless mistake with an easy remedy. The entire red alliance had zero doubt that 1323 intended to call the timeout all along. Instead, you have team members in tears in their pits. Not because they lost, but because they didn't even get the chance that they earned through their #4 alliance captain position.

What really, really, really grinds my gears is the total hypocrisy of the situation. We have video of missed assists in many of our matches. Non-calls and phantom calls that make absolutely no sense when watching the replay. Bizarre field faults involving hot goals, pedestals, and even transitioning the whole field into teleop 1.5 seconds after the start of autonomous (!). In these situations, we could do nothing but pound sand or get a replay (in the case of the latter issue). Why the double standard when a high school student makes an honest mistake?