[EricH]

Originally Posted by rich2202

If your robot is blocked in the batter, that is a pin. Regardless of whether there is contact. No different than if the robot is blocked into a corner. The purpose of the PIN Foul is to allow robots have the potential to move freely.

"WHETHER the team was, in fact, pinned, " is easily resolved during the PIN count period. By the time you get to "2", it is usually pretty obvious if it is a PIN or not. If not, then the PIN count is waived off, no foul, and the robots are free to continue.

I will try to explain my point of view here, as simply as I can.

The team was free to move off of the batter, at any time they felt like (and did by going along the side of the defending robot with minimal turning). There was no robot actually blocking them into the batter (looking at the video). Therefore, in this specific situation, you can make a really good case that there wasn't pinning. Why? Because they were not blocked in. No pin. That's my point of view. If it is unclear, then I will be forced to go to the Thing Explainer dictionary.

Was there a robot playing defense? Yes. Was there a robot pinning? Me looking at the video, and the ref right there looking at it, saw it differently. We both wear the stripes (though not at the same event). You see? Whether the pin actually started is up for debate, and when is up for debate. (It's not inconceivable that it actually started a second or so earlier.) It was called at the event as a pin that was started and ended after 2 seconds.