While I need to review this thread further before I comment on the ruling, (and because most things I've seen here cover what I would say from what I have read) I want to just state one thing to your team!
If you are going to off-seasons which aren't officially FIRST sanctioned and thus more loosely rule based sometimes, then get approval to have both bots (or one bot as is being debated) as you imagined it from week 1 of build being to be allowed to play there at least!
I'd love to see both & or one in competition since I missed BAE this year!
Bottom line is, I'm sure most off season events will not have a problem with you bringing your configuration as you envisioned, since off-season's don't lawyer the rules as much as
FIRST (claim they don't want to) but has in this case!
Good luck the remainder of the year, and I hope to see you at an off-season in New England with both Fezzik & Speed Racer!
Also, if you are going to Atlanta I would like to see both configurations shipped there to allow the general FIRST public to see what was disallowed for future reference.
A personal statement to everyone else aside from Team 1519!!! Please read!!
If you believe that Team 1519 are truly innovative, and thought outside the box with this, and you see them at an event, please offer some words of congratulations & praise in their engineering attempts, even if you don't agree that they followed the rules as lawyered.
I know if I see 1519 at an event this year, I will be doing that very thing.
I personally praise their creativity, innovation, and outside the box thinking!
I thought that's what a majority of the engineering awards were for in this competition, and am saddened to see them being penalized for attempting to break the mold, step it up a bit and push the engineering limits to extremes!
</$0.02>