All statements below are purely my own and should not be construed as representing the views of USFIRST, Washington FIRST Robotics, Pacific Northwest FIRST, Oregon FIRST Robotics, FRC Team 949, or any other entity...
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Originally Posted by EricH
Yep. However, as a ref myself, I saw a number of situations like that that had me very close to signalling the start of a pin count, but within 1 second the situation was not a pin. This is a fluid game.
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If that happens it's easy to wave off with no foul as I do here. If you don't start the count until say 3 seconds in (assuming you're going to give the offending robot 5 seconds to get away), it's not fair to the pinned robot since they're now pinned for up to 8 seconds. In this particular case 2907 had also been pinning aggressively (but legally) throughout the event, so I felt very confident starting a count right away.
Again, it's fair to say this call is questionable. If it were a fellow ref, I wouldn't call it wrong either if they started a pin count or didn't. If 2907 were 2' back and to the left so that 1540 can't back away I'd say pinning is definitely the right call and the count should start immediately, but it's so hard to determine field-side -- especially in the heat of the moment.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Louisiana Jones
Great to hear it from the source, and yeah hindsight makes it easy to see. I guess what I'm wondering is how refs at different events were told to call pinning? Maybe you can provide some insight Aaron. I'd like to know how it will be called at champs as it can significantly change the way teams play defense, and how we plan on doing so. Will T-bones be called pinning? How do both robot's movement play into the call?
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At PNW DCMP we had an incredibly strong ref crew with an average of ~3 preceding Stronghold events each as ref or head ref so we were probably more capable/confident being strict with fouls than most ref crews. I can't comment on what direction will be given to referees at CMP. I can speculate that defense will be very aggressive at CMP and that since excessive pinning really breaks offense G22 will be strictly enforced.
With regards to T-boning I can't give a general answer, but if the T-boned robot is in contact with some other object and it's motion is stopped or significantly impeded, do you feel this meets the blue box for G22?
With respect to movement, refs aren't psychic. If a robot is simultaneously in contact with an opposing robot and some other object and is not moving, there's a good chance we're going to assume it's not moving because it's pinned. In a batter type scenario, if the pinned robot starts moving within 5 seconds it's most likely going to qualify as "chasing" (see G22) which should cause the pin to be waved off. As a final reminder, pinning continues until the offending robot backs off by 6' for 3 seconds, so once a pin is started any movement by the offending robot within 6' is usually irrelevant.