[patrickrd]

I think there is some misunderstanding between judges, referees, and inspectors, which I think people ought to know the difference.

The judges are the the part of the regional crew in the blue shirts. They are the people who give out judged awards, for example the motorola quality award. Judges are VIP's with technical background that FIRST and the regional designate long before the regional takes place.

The referees are the ones in black and white who watch each match and they make the decisions regarding whether a team violated rules during a match. The judges have no part in this... In fact many judges do not even know what the game is all about until they arrive at the event and watch a couple matches. Referees are typically composed of one head referee designated by FIRST and a crew of referees chosen by the regional. These are the people that could disqualify a team for intentional distruction or entanglement.

The inspectors are not judges or referees (except in a few very isolated cases where there are inspectors who are also refs). They wear FIRST crew shirts and are for the most part indistinguishable from the rest of the volunteers. The inspectors are the ones who actually inspect your bot and complete an inspection checklist on Thursday. These people are typically regional volunteers that FIRST feels have lots of technical background and are very knowledgable of the rules. These are the people that could say a tether is an entanglement hazard and should be removed before the robot is allowed to compete.

So why is this Patrick Dingle giving you all this information? Because he met and worked with all the judges at Long Island and think they are not to blame! They were a great crew.

- Patrick