[rich2202]

What is the purpose of rules if you are not going to follow them?

I can appreciate being lax with compliance at the Regionals to allow as many robots as possible compete. I presumed that compliance at the Championship would be more strictly enforced, but that was not so. They basically had the same attitude - let the robots compete.

I propose that there be two levels of passing inspection:

1) Safety
2) Compliant

And for Regionals, a 3rd level - Mostly compliant / Warning

If a team passes a Safety Inspection, then it is like the current "Inspected" status, but, is not eligible to for the Elimination rounds.

A Team that passes a Compliant Inspection is fully compliant with safety and the rules, and can fully compete (like the current "Inspected" status).

At Regionals, minor non-compliance that is deemed fixable will be treated as "Compliant", but with a warning that if the non-compliance is not fixed, they will not be "compliant" at the Championship. Non-compliant items would be noted on the Bag and Tag form.

Minor non-compliance would be things like:
1) Bumpers (including covers) that exceed the 2-10" bumper zone
2) slight violations of the frame perimeter (or 20" rule) that could be fixed between competitions using the hold back rule.
3) marginally secured battery
4) over by less than X pounds

The championship would have to figure out what to do with non-compliance that was not previously discovered and noted on the bag and tag form. If a non-compliant item on the Bag and Tag is not fixed, then the team can only pass a Safety inspection until the item is fully compliant.