[EricH]

Originally Posted by dlavery

Sorry, but this logic is going to miss the mark. If, as you state, someone were reffing and tried to pull this, I am pretty sure there would be a rather large crowd asking that that person be prevented from further officiating.

The definition of TEAM in Chapter 7 is clear - it is four people representing the larger FRC "team" (lower case). The rules in Chapter 7 affect the actions of the TEAM. They do not restrict the actions of the "team." The area of the ARENA is explicitly bounded and defined in Chapter 6 and the official drawings. Rule <G37> limits the number of TEAM members and additional personnel in the ARENA. Trying to make the argument that there are more than four TEAM members inside that bounded area when they are communicating from the stands is specious upon inspection.

If you want to make an argument against communicating with the TEAM from the audience, then do it based on the Tournament Rules (specifically, Rule <T23> and Rule <T23>). There at least, there is some basis for forming a logic that can hold water.

-dave

(And as always, here is the reminder that official answers are obtained solely from the FIRST Q&A system. No other source will be acknowledged by the referees. They won't even look at discussions or answers from unofficial sources such as this forum.)

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I didn't hear (literally or figuratively) any large crowd during or after the 2008 Championships when team XXXX was DQ'd at least partially due to audience cheering. Nonetheless, point taken. And I have done so--just like the bumper rules, there is a number of individual requirements that add up to a pretty substantial boundary on what you can and can't do. And this has been asked in Q&A. The only response was to refer to the above-referenced rules (<T22> and <T23>). I'm not quite sure that that totally works, though. Sure, it takes care of virtually any outbound traffic, and any electronic communication either way. The question is simply, is inbound communication that isn't both electronic and wireless legal? As written, it is. (Please note: "As written" is just that, under my interpretation. This is in no way official.)

I might have asked about communicating with the OUTPOST, but that's in the ARENA. You just have to do it without physical contact or electronic wireless communication.