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Originally Posted by M. Krass
...which, alongside using your alliances time-outs on behalf of your competitors,
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This was never against the rules. What could not be done was back-to-back time outs. Red could always use their time-out for any reason, except if Blue had just used theirs.
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I can recall more than a few instances of teams being unable to compete for some reason or another and having another group step in and take the reigns.
It's interesting that those two things are now against the rules -- intentionally or otherwise.
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Previously it was implied, but not stated outright, that there could not be substitutes from other teams driving your robot. The definition from game rules is
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DRIVER: a pre-college student team member responsible for operating and controlling the
ROBOT. There are two DRIVERS per TEAM.
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(emphasis mine) The new rule makes it explicit. Whether that's good or bad, I'm not sure. I think it's a case of making a rule to cover a situation - partner teams with co-designed robots, using one set of drivers. But it happens to now disallow an opportunity for gracious professionalism and teamwork (in the broader sense of all FIRST being a team).
This does bring up a question of what it means to be a member of a team. Each team has their own process of going about it. There is no "registration" such as you'd find in a sports league. The only thing close to it is the disclosure form you turn in at a competition, which has your team number on it. Can you switch from one team to another between weeks 1 and 3 of regionals?