[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by MasonMM

It was unfortunate that while we were continuing to tweak our robot to fit within this criteria that was not available prior to the regional we still had points taken away. And by no means do we want to operate unsafely; we just want a consistent and available interpretation of the rules for tournaments all across the country.

If regularly throwing (or even bouncing) trackballs completely out of the arena isn't a clear violation of <S1>, I don't know what is. Did you want the referees to keep ignoring your unsafe behavior while you "tweaked" your robot? It sounds to me like they were generous with you.

As a scorekeeper at Seattle (where the table was maybe three feet from the edge of the arena) and trainee scorekeeper at Portland, I am EXTREMELY grateful for the teams and referees that think my safety is important. While I appreciate that your intent was to modify your robot to become safer, while it was still throwing balls out of the arena the referees should have penalized and/or disabled your robot. Good intentions are necessary but not sufficient for safety.