[Paul Copioli]

Wow. I stop paying attention for one day and this happens.

This ruling is interesting. Very interesting. There are a couple of issues here:

1. This is only a Q & A ruling and I bet barely 40% of all teams even will have even read it let alone understand all of the implications.

2. People who have read this Q&A and follow it by its letter will be at a distinct disadvantage because several modified COTS items can now not be loaned out if they were assembled. At the same time, several teams will be in violation and not even know it.

3. Following up on #2 (like Cory pointed out), there are several, "well, they couldn't have meant this" items that are illegal to loan: any VersaPlanetary that is assembled, any WCP, AndyMark, or VEXpro gearbox that is assembled, any VEXpro Versaframe that is cut prior to the event, etc. While I assume the GDC didn't mean to make these items illegal for loaning, the Q&A response is pretty clear they are illegal.


With all of that said, what concerns me is the following scenario:

Team A is a team who has "violated" the new interpretation and has some modified COTS they put on their third alliance partner prior to eliminations.

Team C, on a different elimination alliance, alerts the lead inspector of this violation bringing the Q&A with them.

What happens then?

I can tell you this: we will definitely be team C if we feel that we are at a disadvantage by following the rules and someone else is breaking them (per the Q&A response) and I hate that I feel compelled to be Team C in this scenario.


My personal feeling on the "let's just put our [insert cool subsystem here] on team B", is that some of the things that have happened at competitions this year just don't feel right to me. Our team has a can grabber subsystem that could easily be put on almost any robot. We have plenty of spares on our practice robot and we have contemplated bringing an even full set of these grabbers if we make it to Champs. Obviously, this ruling makes that clearly illegal; but to be honest, it never really felt right to me in the first place.

I don't know exactly what I would do in this situation if I were on the GDC, but I definitely would NOT just leave this as a Q&A. This needs to be included in a Team Update as a blue box clarification at a minimum.