[Scott358]

Philly Head Ref,

Thank you for taking the time to post an explanation, which obviously you were not obligated to do. Overall, you and your team did a great job.

Even though I disagree with a few details of how things are recalled in your message about match 1 of the finals, and the call itself, it is obviously your responsibility to make the call and you made it the best you could with the information you had. We must respect that and move on from here, teaching the kids how to deal with such a situation in as positive and constructive a manner as possible.

I do hope that FIRST reviews this rule, and makes it less vague for the Nationals, as it appears as though this specific rule has caused many issues in other regionals, and has been interpreted differently from regional to regional. The rule as currently written puts good people like yourself in a difficult situation... to seemingly try to judge intent, take into account when something happened, estimate how it impacted the outcome, and to pick from extremes (10 points penalty or complete disqualification).

Again, thank you and your team for all your hard work and commitment to this wonderful program.

Scott358
Engineer/Mentor
Festo Hauppauge Robotic Eagles
2005 Philly Regional Finalist
2005 LI Regional Chairman's Award
2005 LI Regional Champions (thanks team 527 and 870)