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Let me reiterate our point as their seems to be confusion. There was 1 adult mentor on each team. Each team also had 3 students. Each mentor did not touch the balls or controls at any time during the match. Only the students drove or returned the balls to the match. And in contrast to what Dan_550 on team 550 said, at no time before this incident was any statement made concerning the return of balls to field made. I remember that a specific example of a DQ was shown before the competition started. It regarded stepping out of the box, not who could throw the ball. Dan_550 unfortunately for you, there is no basis in written rule for your claim just like the refs had none. And no team is required to have 2 people to drive their robot. It may be common practice, however the role of each student on the driving team is NOT defined anywhere. We could, in theory, decide to switch human player and driver in the middle of a match without penalty. A mentor from team 25 even recalled Dean Kamen saying at the Kick-Off that having more than one person on a team returning balls to the field was allowed this year. The bottom line is that if FIRST intended that only 1 human player return balls to the field, then they should have laid it out in the rules clearly. According to the written rules in the 2002 manual there is no basis for the refs' claim in match 27 and I would like to see written evidence that says otherwise. While some may disagree with our position, that have failed to provide written rules, any public statement before match 27, or previous precedents set in prior matches that can support their claim. I apologize for my harsh tone, but this one match severely impacted our final seeding and dropped us out the top 8. While I don't mind people disagreeing with me, I can't stand it when they don't have proof to support it.
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