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Originally Posted by squirrel
<devil's advocate>
Perhaps this is how the GDC sees the issue (it is pretty much how I see it):
There are what appear to be two robots, although one is missing it's electronics. The team is using a "lawyer" interpretation of the rules to say that only one of them is really a robot, the other is just a mechanism, even though it is obvious by just looking at them that they are indeed both robots.
I realize I'm in the minority among those who are posting on this thread....but come on, you all know what a robot looks like, and what a mechanism looks like. Speed racer looks like a robot, it does not look like just a mechanism. Why should the GDC see it any differently just because the rules don't precisely define what comprises a "ROBOT"? Isn't the general term well enough understood among us folks who design, build, and play with robots that it doesn't need a precise definition?
</devil's advocate>
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But the problem is that "looks like a robot implies it is a robot" is not in the current year's rules, and "looks like a robot implies it is a robot" is very vague. What makes it look like a robot? the wheels? the victors? the square-ness? Any of those are fine reasons to say something is a robot, but
they weren't in the rules. How much of speed racer would 1519 have had to include as part of their swappable kernel before this was legal? The frame? the frame and wheels? Don't know? That's the problem.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by BHS_STopping
I think that what may be a problem for the GDC, in this case, is that it is pretty difficult to create a clear-cut definition of a "robot" without being incredibly intricate or complicated.
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I think the GDC will be able to prevent this next year without defining a robot. If the rules for swappable mechanisms include a clause saying "swapped mechanisms may not touch the ground in the robot's starting configuration" or "swapped mechanisms may not interact with the ground to move the robot", then it would disqualify 1519 cleanly and with minimum sentences.