Quote:
Originally Posted by kevin.li.rit
Yep there are 2 tips the first tip occurs when the one blue robot is traversing the rockwall in the opposite direction about 31 seconds in. and tips the red robot after they clear. |
So I think our video has a better angle on the tipping of 125 at the Boston district event that you're referring to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ljx-Dsy-N4. Note that the video is over seven minutes long. It took quite a while for the judges to conference about this before they decided on the red card. (We keep the camera rolling on matches until the scores kept up. In this case, I wish my student cameraman had kept rolling so we could have heard the whole announcement about the red card.)
Personally, I think the first tip -- where Blue 4176 is just trying to cross back to the neutral zone and Red 2079 is just driving by, was completely inadvertent, and did not warrant a call. If anything Red 2079 was violating rule G43 by interfering with Blue 4176's crossing.
The second tip -- where Blue 2262 repeatedly hits Red 125 was different. Here Blue 2262 is quite intentionally playing a very aggressive defense -- which results in tipping 125.
But I have some problems with the award of the red card here. Part of it is that the very same Robot 2262 played similarly aggressive defense on us (2877) in the Quarter Finals and in fact damaged our robot in two straight matches. (see
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edRyGRw-6G0?t=1m40s where they bash into us 4 times, after which we could no longer drive) -- which caused us to lose the match (and the one before it, which had a similar result) and get eliminated.
But they didn't tip us, so we don't get the benefit of a card -- or even a foul. It would in fact, have been practically impossible to tip our robot, which is quite heavy and low to the ground.
This is something that's bothered me for a number of years. In 2014 for example, there were some top-heavy robots that tipped easily. I believe that year, tipping a robot was a 50 point "technical foul". There was one robot I remember that was seriously top-heavy that benefited from that foul at least three times in one competition -- because nearly any contact would result in it tipping over.
So my question is whether this rule is fair? A robot like 2262 presumably thought they were playing aggressive defense within the rules (or else that ref sure failed to give us a foul call he should have a couple of matches earlier). The same actions that are fine with one robot however, cause another to tip. If you look at the video -- 2262's driver had very little time to notice that 125 is starting to tip and react. So yes, you can argue that the third and fourth time they ram 125 was gratuitous and worthy of a foul -- but they only got it because 125's robot was somewhat tippy (I know 125 tipped at least once simply crossing a defense, and given the number of matches they played, I'll bet they tipped more than once.) Should it be the case that if you build a robot that tips easily, you get extra protection from being strongly defended?