[Carol]

As a ref, here are my first thoughts. This is a good idea but I doubt it is workable.

1) This system relies on the ability of all teams to be completely unbiased and fair. Most are, but there are some who will never admit that their team did anything wrong and were nothing less than perfect. Very rare, but even one team at an event would throw off this system and create problems for everyone. GP is the goal for everyone but human nature sometimes wins.

2) Most disagreements in scoring are on penalties, not scored objects. Except for Aim High, the previous games were relatively easy to count and were counted after play ended (yes, there were a few judgment calls, such as whether a tetra actually scored or not. But these were rare.) Aim High did have problems counting balls in real time, but how could the teams really count them better than the ball counters sitting right on top on the goals?

2) Penalties are unfortunately a judgment call most of the time. See point 1. Yes, the refs make mistakes but penalties are often a group call among refs, who saw the whole game and not just one team's perceptive, which is usually seen through the glass wall and during the heat of battle.

3) Scores ARE sometimes changed, particularly if the team CALMLY AND POLITELY explains the situation. Particularly if you have proof, such as the scores on the ref sheet don't match what was inputted in the PC (that has happened). Once two teams came up to us, one of which was disputing a penalty. The other team said he's right, his team didn't tip us, we tipped ourselves (or whatever the penalty was, I don't remember). So we took back the penalty. The stock answer "ref calls are final" is always given if the team loudly and agitatedly argues. Or if it is the mentor arguing, not the students.

(N.B. Scores are very rarely changed at the Championships. Refs are more experienced and stakes are higher.)

4) It would add time. Say at 3 minutes extra per match, with 12 matches per day this would add over 30 minutes - at least. Wouldn't you rather have the time to play more matches?

What is the goal of FIRST competition? To win a trophy? Or to learn that life isn't always fair, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but you have fun either way and you appreciate what is really important in life?