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Originally Posted by Astronouth7303
Not great sportsmanship. Assuming that the other side (the one with the broke bot) was not being deceptive, etc., such behavor is opposite to the spirit of FIRST.
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I disagree. While I agree that when the opposing team denies the other team the chance to repair their robot they are not particularly doing a gracious deed to that team,
there is nothing ungracious or unsportsmanlike about their choice. It's not as if they intentionally did something to harm the other team. You must remember that FIRST is a competition, and while letting the other team fix their robot is a very gracious gesture, at the same time it is unfair to the other members of the team who made the decision, their allies, and their supporters, because it takes away an extra chance to succeed that was gained fairly.
This same situation did in fact occur during a regional event this year, at the Canadian Regional. During the quarterfinals, one of our opponents broke down, used up their time out, and then wanted to switch robots. The refs came to me, the alliance captain, to make the call (something, as Andy Baker pointed out, which shouldn't have taken place since the rules are clear) and I decided, not wanting to let down the rest of my team and our alliance partners, to not allow the switch. I have not regretted my decision in the time since then, and neither I nor the mentors on my team regarded this choice as being unsportsmanlike.