[daveed007]

I was a referee (not head) at one of this year's regionals. We were told that if you can remove a tube from underneath the robot "without resistance" that we could count that robot as unsupported. That's the "official" wording from the Head Ref. Personally, I agree with this interpretation of the rules. I also think FIRST has to do a better job of updating official rules with some type of logic and common sense.

That being said....there is a very valid argument that I haven't seen raised in this thoughtful discussion. The essence of the argument here is between strict interpretation of the rules vs. common sense or a looser interpretation. I think a vast majority of the people here would agree that the rules "should" allow the red alliance to win this match. However, there are many teams that painstakingly go through great efforts to design, build, and run their robots to abide by a strict interpretation of the rulebook. Circumventing the rules in favor of "common sense" by a referee would punish such a team for their time and work in these area. Just another facet of the argument to consider....

Dave