[RyanW]

Is that legal, though?

If you can say "Do this for 1 second", why not "Do this for 1/2 second" or "Do this for 36.5 ms" (or whatever slow loop time is)? Either no single command may be used with a timer, or there's some arbitrary dividing line between what interval is legal and what isn't, or it's a semantics issue.

Personally, I have no problem with that ruling - though it'd be nice for rookie teams and teams worried about crashing to be able to drive via IR. The point is that we're supposed to be giving the robot fairly high-level commands, like "The trackball is on the left - go get it", not just trying to drive with 4 buttons. Unfortunately, it's easy for teams to think of more and more examples, using tricky wording or clever signaling, that follow the letter but not the spirit of the rules. If this keeps up, future hybrid mode instructions could come with pages of rulings as to just what you can and can't do with the IR commands. However, that seems like it might be slightly better than the current confusion - we can't use the exact command they showed at the kickoff (and what about the "Drive Fast" in the human game?)! Hopefully if hybrid continues in future years, there will be a clearer picture of what is allowed.