Quote:
Originally Posted by T^2
Of course the unequivocally wrong decision was made. An injustice was committed against these teams. The people in charge made a decision that may have been in line with the letter of the rules, but was immoral. If the written laws are immoral, then it is one's duty to ignore them. Blind obedience to the law is the very hallmark of fascism.
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I don't think a bad FTC referee call has much to do with
facism, but that's just me.
As far as I can tell, there's really no question about what should've been done. Correct me if I'm wrong, but matches are not to be replayed unless they fall under the circumstances of G14, which they didn't. I'm not 100% well-versed in FTC referee rules and guidelines off the top of my head, but I'm pretty positive video evidence is not allowed to be used. I know that I've volunteered at plenty of competitions where a team brought video evidence to the refs and they wouldn't even view it, so I assume the same would apply here. The way I see it, the refs were just following the rules. Should the rules be rewritten? Maybe. But that's not up to the refs to decide on the competition floor. Imagine how chaotic FTC (and FRC, FLL) would be if refs could cherry-pick which rules they want to abide by (in the name of facism or otherwise). Not to mention that although one 5-minute delay might not affect competition that much, inviting other teams to have their matches replayed could cause significant delays.
Tough calls like this happen. I am legitimately sorry for what happened to your team, and the fact that it may have prevented you from going further at the
world championship. That's a bummer. More than that it's almost heartbreaking. But I think that this is your job as a mentor to make the best of a negative experience and turn it into a positive, learning one. Instead of teaching your kids that "the refs or evil," or on the flipside that you should "live with it," teach your kids something constructive about the experience. Whether it's through organizing a petition to FIRST about your displeasure with the FTC rules, advocating for a way to fix them, or by developing a robot that is less prone to penalties next year, use this as a life lesson. I think you're presented with a unique and special opportunity right now and I would hate to see it go to waste. It's not my place as a high schooler to tell an adult what to do, but I strongly encourage you to make what you want of this situation. You can either take it as a negative and allow it to destroy your FTC/FIRST career, or you can have your kids grow and improve as individuals and a team thanks to this experience.