[Ken Streeter]

I just happened to tune in to the webcast of the NASA/VCU regional. I was astonished by two of the penalties called in the first match (#21) which I watched.

1 - The blue alliance racked up 39 points in "DOGMA" penalties, because one of the balls that they returned to the field near the beginning of the match went over the "ball return counter", resulting in DOGMA penalties accruing every 2 seconds for the remainder of the match! This doesn't seem right to me. I could see 1 penalty point being assessed, but to continually assess a penalty every 2 seconds for the remainder of the match defies common sense, especially since the ball was returned to the field. My reading of <G17> is that the penalty is for balls that are not returned. Arguably, this ball was returned to the field (on time even), but simply missed the ball return counter. For 39 points of penalties to accrue from a single violation is clearly not the GDC's intent. Furthermore, once the team realizes this has occurred, they have absolutely no way to remedy the situation for entire remainder of the match! This basically means that if the human player with the trident makes a simple mistake at the beginning of the match, the unavoidable conclusion (even if they could manage to score 30+ points) is that they lose the match.

2 - One of the blue alliance robots (I think it was 1655) was also given a red card (disqualified for the match) due to being the second robot to enter the opponent's zone (the red zone) and failing to immediately remedy the problem. (See G29.) It turns out that the webcast was on the robot at the time the violation occurred, and the robot tipped over while it was crossing the bump to enter the red zone! Thus, since the robot tipped over as it entered the red zone, it had no way to remedy the problem. Again, I think a single penalty would have been appropriate, but to issue a red card for this violation, while strictly within the letter of the rules, is clearly not the intent of those rules.

This year, I had been extremely impressed by the discretion exercised by the referee crew at the Week 1 BAE Systems NH Granite State Regional (GSR) -- the referees exercised common sense with regard to issuing penalties, rather than simply following the letter of the rules for situations where common sense and gracious professionalism would indicate a different outcome. For example, at GSR, the referees clearly enforced rule G46 (Ball Penetration Restriction) with the intent that was later codified by the team update after week 1 by not penalizing "incidental protusions of the ball within" the frame perimeter when the offending robot immediately attempted to rectify the situation, or if the problem occurred as a result of robot-to-robot contact (for example, when two robots get into a pushing match with a ball in between and one of the robots ends up with a ball under the robot.)

Similarly, at the NH Granite State Regional our team accidentally drove up on top of a ball during QF1-1 when we used our robot to right an opponent's robot that tipped over during a pushing contest with our robot. We were pleased to see that the referees at GSR used their understanding of gracious professionalism to not issue a penalty to our team for this incidental (and accidental) driving up on top of a ball while we were clearly assisting an opponent robot, even in the midst of an elimination match!

My initial impression of the Virginia regional is that the referees are enforcing a much stricter (absolutely literal) interpretation of the rules. I don't think this strictly literal interpretation of the rules is in the best interest of the game, or of FIRST.

Have others that have watched more of the webcast or are actually at the regional have a perspective on whether the referees are utilizing a strictly literal interpretation of the rules, or are they exercising their discretion for common sense and gracious professionalism?