[ThunderousPrime]

Originally Posted by bobl

There were 2 HPs down field and one behind the alliances. There may have been a member of the 4th team but I thought this was characterized as an Alliance Captain not an HP.

I was the one who implemented the strategy of using a fourth human player during the match for the number 5 Newton alliance. It is explained below.

Quoted from the FRC Manual 5.6.1

One representative from the TEAM not on the LINEUP is allowed in the ALLIANCE STATION as a thirteenth ALLIANCE member.

The above applies to not only the a captain sitting out a match but any team regardless of selection number which does not field a robot. In practice this means that you can have 1 extra Coach or HP from your backup partner. We decided to use 2283's Human Player to take balls off of the pedestal and throw them to 2054's human player who inbounded the ball. The reasoning behind this was to save 1-2 seconds on getting a ball in play by not having to run from the pedestal to the corner.

To the my knowledge the 13th alliance member role was explained incorrectly at the captain's meeting (at least in Newton) after alliance selection to mean that the 13th member only could come from a captain as stated in the quote. We asked the head ref about this by showing him the above quote and we were able to use this strategy with no repercussions.

As for how it went in matches, it worked well; 2054's HP caught every throw from 2283's HP. I had them practice throwing balls back and for to each other for about a minute to practice this before they did this for a match.

I'm interested to know what other alliances did to use the 13th member for. This situation is yet another example of why teams, especially drive teams should read the Manual thoroughly or they may miss out on (small) opportunities like this one.