[Kevin Kolodziej]

Originally Posted by Zaque

Another driver and I went to the question box, where the head ref told us we had won even with the pedestal error, so we went on our merry way. However, as we were setting up for our third match, the head ref came over and told us that we would be replaying the second match, because the other alliance argued that the pedestal error changed how the match was played.

You bet it led to an unhappy team...

Introductions were going on and the FTAs came to our alliance station (blue) and told us to huddle up and explained that the red alliance had protested the previous match due to the blue pedestal not lighting affecting the flow of the match and that after conferring with HQ the match would be replayed. We (blue) had no say, no recourse, and no time to settle down from this news as the match was about to start. Not only did this mentally affect our alliance, but now the red alliance (who won match 1) could play this match very differently because they had "nothing to lose" rather than it being a rubber match.

Should it have been a replay? Yes. It was a clear field fault. Why it took so long to communicate that to our alliance, after the head ref said we're good (and his ruling is supposed to be final), I have no idea, and I'll never understand. I would been fine with replaying the match had we been told up front it was a replay.

If replays were granted consistently, there would be no question of whether to allow the affected team to deny the replay. I really could go either way on this, but I'm not okay with the FTAs calling HQ and overruling the head ref at the urging of the opposing alliance (which is what APPEARED to have happened at Midwest).