Quote:
Originally Posted by EricH
You are not representing that team--but you are perceived as representing that team. The difference between perception and reality can be rather fine, in some people's minds. Just as an example, it is entirely possible for a ref crew to be thoroughly unbiased (as a crew), but be seen as biased for or against a team or two because X happens and Y happens--they're completely independent events, but it happens in such a way that the refs appear biased.
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A lot of the difficulty is being an LRI or a head ref is managing the perception of impartiality. I know I can be impartial when inspecting robots, but it can be difficult to walk up to a team I know well and not have an outside observer say "well, he's friends with that team, so...". It's not that big of a deal for me most of the time, but when a question comes up in the playoffs, it can be tough. It's one of the big reasons I'm careful about who I ask to help me during the playoffs - having inspectors keeping an eye on the queue from different teams or from teams that aren't playing that afternoon can really help!
The short of it is, perception is just as important in these situations as reality. If someone has reason to perceive you have an affiliation with a group, then you are representing that group whether you (or the group) likes it or not.