Quote:
Originally Posted by ElvisMom
Attended Midwest, a Week 6 event. On Friday, right before matches started, a student asked one of our adults "What does the human player do?" Later found out that our human player was asked to explain the basics of the role to at least two different teams on Friday. I'm sure this was not an isolated incident for our team or the volunteers.
Then on Saturday (Day 2 of a Week 6 event) in what I believe were teams' 11th or 12th quals matches I observed: - Human player being instructed from stands where she needed to locate herself. She stood outside the box and immediately got a penalty.
- Human player being instructed by an alliance partner where the human player needed to stand. Student did not move to the box. Eventually his own mentor gently pushed him down the sideline and he walked slowly to the human player box as the match started. No one noticed and he did not get a penalty.
- Two human players occupying the same human player box for the duration of the match, leaving the box on the opposite side of the field empty.
- Another entire match played without a human player in one of the human player zones. This time no one doubled up though. No idea where the third human player was.
Unfortunate for students to find themselves in these situations as they could easily be avoided.
Some teams bring bumper supplies and build bumpers for rookie and other teams. Perhaps a few teams could also "build human players" on practice day - just checking in with teams to make sure they have someone assigned the role and understand the basics of the role. Certainly should be on teams' pre-match checklists - Do your alliance partners have a human player? Do they at least understand where to stand? Something we'll discuss during prep for next season. |
To be fair I've witnessed Stupid Human Player Tricks other years. My all time favorite was the 2010 GTR West when a rookie team human player was manning the trident and received several balls while standing outside the player zone. A ref was watching him the whole time and gave him a penalty for every ball he received. After about five or six he walked up behind the kid and nudged him back into the player station and went back to watching the field. After the match the team removed the student from being human player and made him driver instead.