[Racer26]

I will agree with you guys there, the field refs were VERY consistent at the Waterloo Regional. The only thing I had a little trouble with was towards the end of Saturday, 188 capped the overpass at the last possible second, the ball settled into the overpass, and their lift (presumably running on pneumatics, or a backwindable motor) slid downwards after the match. I'm not totally certain if it was in contact with the ball at T=0. The refs did NOT score this ball. One or two matches later, 2609 had a similar incident. They capped the ball, and backed up a bit right when the buzzer went (presumably attempting to not lose their ball the same way 188 did), once disabled, their arm collapsed down, and brushed the ball on its way down (the ball was still settling into the overpass, but would have anyway). The refs didn't count this ball either, and I feel they should have, as 2609 was NOT in contact with the ball at T=0, but rather came into contact with it AFTER T=0.

EDIT: Also, the queuing crew were not quite so consistent. On Thursday, they told us that they didn't like how big our cart was (for anyone who was their, they can attest that our powered forklift cart WAS a little on the big side, but still totally reasonable in comparison to some of the stuff I've seen at a FIRST event, never mind that it was designed with the utmost of ergonomics and safety in mind, as noted by the Safety Advisors). They did however say that as long as we didn't drive it up alongside the field, and that we were quick with it and didn't get in the way, that it would be fine. Then late on Friday, they flipflopped, again saying that they didn't want it there. After much complaining from our lead mentor (who on numerous occasions has hurt his back lifting our robot onto the field, yielding the forklift design of our cart), they watched us very carefully the next few times we brought it in, and eventually said it would be ok again.