[Boltman]

Originally Posted by Kevin Ray

First off, a very much appreciate that refs are volunteers and as such should be granted a great deal of appreciation and blanket acceptance for their decisions. However, after having attended two regionals I feel that the intent of the rule and the letter of the rule are being missed too frequently. On dozens upon dozens of occasions penalties (G38 b) were called for intentionally moving a boulder to gain advantage when CLEARLY the driver was only attempting to drive with the boulder which they had in their possession to get to a defense to cross into the courtyard. The situation occurs all too often that another boulder happens to be in the direct path of the driver. Rather than driving around it as though it were a land mine, they merely push it off to the side and get flagged. Was an advantage gained? Possibly yes, BUT the caveat at the bottom of the rule clearly states that bulldozing balls in the way is not worthy of a penalty. I think that this interpretation needs to be emphasized at the drivers' meetings by the head ref. The intent of the the GDC in making the herding rule IMO was rather obvious but has since morphed into a "touch a second boulder and be flagged" situation.

One common scenario is boulders collecting at low bar (from Human players) so in order for a bot to clear sometimes they will have a boulder and find another in their path on a defense. I think where the rule will come into play is the intent . If that bot finds the easiest way is to bulldoze the extra boulder though that could be OK as long as they don't use it to gain advantage (and there was not a good alternative) . Now if they went out of their way to make a second boulder go through a defense then that would likely be called.

I saw bots in that scenario aware of the two possession for advantage rule and purposely rid themselves of that extra boulder in their path prior to crossing a defense while possessing another. So teams find out pretty quick how the ref crew will call. I see refs talking to teams after to explain calls in many cases so they understand why they triggered a foul.

The rules are not always super clear... so that is why there are multiple referees to discus the rules as a unit and build a consensus not to mention the worldwide aspect and continual rule clarifications. This year is especially complex when you look at the rules. I saw teams purposely design their bots with tiny 15" extensions (seemingly useless) to take advantage of the rules themselves (for "bumper hang" protection in OW and to make a foul more likely and also to clear space to shoot) , perfectly legal and very smart (wish we thought of it) . The rules are there for anyone to read.

Intent of the rule IMO boils down to did one boulder per action through OW happen (desired outcome) or if two or more did then did that bot intend to use that for competitive gain or not?

I don't see any point to just touching a second boulder inadvertently being a foul as that happens a lot with wheeled bots in fact in every regional I watched , it happens. I never saw that called as long as inadvertent as driving over and getting stuck on it. As for pushing it aside I find it weird that would be flagged because the boulder was not there to start and it would waste time releasing a carried boulder just to push a boulder out of the way of a defense, I cannot see how that would be called myself. IMO bots should be able to hit boulders around as they drive as long as its not though OW or SP while possessing another. If that happened I'm sure our team would ask for clarification of the foul at the end of match and explain our side of it.

A few things I would keep in mind in regard to the rules and would remind my drive team of....

Notice how you always start on opponents side of the field?

When on your side (the one you did not start on closest to your drivers) that is when MOST FOULS get called for various actions so defensive bots are certainly potential foul violators as are any other partners on your castle side past the mid-line... there are several fouls that trigger in those scenarios with OW. G43 and intentional/coordinated blocking OW defense strategies to prevent a breach come to mind.

The other key point is last 20 seconds and contact with opponent will likely trigger FREE SCALE so at 30 second sound think about getting out of their courtyard ASAP and before the 20 second sound . Lastly when touching their secret passage that also triggers a foul with any competitor contact at any time so be careful when in their SP and never enter it or exit it to neutral (foul).