[Goldeye]

Originally Posted by DarMagi

I have to say the play was smart. Seeing as how the alliance member also looked ahead to determine that their alliance would be in the losing alliance, they simply used the elements that they were granted with on the field, a vision tetra, and used to to their advantage. I say it's clean and fair that they used the tetra to stop possible points, as the vision tetras were also used to stop robots from capping the goals by being pushed in front of their 'bot while the arm was in the process of hanging, so why not be able to use the vision tetra to stop the homezone bonus from being scored?

I'd agree with you if the vision tetra were pushed into the end zone before the bot. Then, there's no question - the robot itself is not over the line, no matter what. However, the tetra isn't the robot. The tetra touching the outside shouldn't be a problem.

Originally Posted by AmyPrib

I think the rules regarding this are ok as is, as long as they are called consistently. A tetra merely touching a robot in the endzone is fine. If a robot arm is supported by that tetra, and otherwise would be outside the zone, that's iffy but appears to be within the rules. Going along those lines, I suppose you'd also have to consider when a robot runs out of time trying to cap, and that tetra is touching the stack, currently that should be fine... but what happens if you remove that tetra, is it supporting the arm to keep it from touching the stack? It would take even longer to score if this had to be done, and another judgement call (unless they physically remove the tetra, which might not be possible at the time).
I think it should be the way it is now. Tetra is part of the robot in the case of HP zone. So long as the "robot" as defined, is not touching a stack or outside the endzone or the autoload tetra, it's good.

I agree with you on the first part. Though the rules don't make it all explicitly obvious, as long as the call is consistantly only regarding loading zones (both, or just human, whatever is decided) it's all good.
The reason it's an issue with the autoloading zone is that you may be able to use it to pull a tetra in, or in another manner load it, without being in the loading zone. A safety hazard, for numerous reasons. The most apparent being that the attendant will not load another tetra until you leave the zone. If you never enter, how do they know when you've left? :/ Counting it as a part of the robot or not, the carried tetra hitting the autoloader tetra is a safety hazard, and should be ruled as such.