[Boltman]

Originally Posted by Nuttyman54

I disagree entirely. Although the onus is on the teams to clearly have their bumpers in the OUTER WORKS, the refs should be paying attention regardless. Remember, CROSSING is only one direction (Neutral Zone to Courtyard) but TRAVERSING is either direction. The protection clause applies to TRAVERSING. Regardless of if I have a ball and intend to shoot or not, the refs should be watching for when my bumpers cross into the OUTER WORKS, because I may be intending to TRAVERSE back to the Neutral Zone, not necessarily shoot.

I agree it is a tough game to ref, and refs will miss things, but it's also their job to enforce the rules as best as possible. If I do my best to make it obvious that my robot bumpers are in the OUTER WORKS, I should expect be protected from interference, regardless of when/how/from what direction I approach the OUTER WORKS.

*Disclaimer: My team is not shooting at all, and has a mechanism to open the Sally Port from the neutral zone so as not to rely on the "tap" method.*

How do you expect a ref to pay that close attention to your bot with 5 others on field?

Basically the rule is in place so the other alliance cannot just defend entrances to to "easier" defenses all day and also so they cant trap a bot in a defense... the "shooting protection" is a secondary construct of the rule in the first place...relying on "bumper hang shooting protection" calls is dreaming. To many other things refs have a primary responsibility to track...like basic crossings.

These are volunteers and are human with a tough game to call.

They let slide many things in Palmetto..probably due to audience game play flow. Just like in NFL holding happens many times a game..gets called a few times. Too many "flags' creates audience fatigue.