[meaubry]

Well, its been a few days and I have delayed a response regarding the incident that we have recieved a few comments about. For one, I've been very busy at work and at home in preperation for Thanksgiving - and 2nd, I wanted to think about "How I wanted to respond". In that past during my younger years, I would have lashed out at the accusers, but now I have learned to stop and think about what I'm going to say, then try and articulate the answer as best I can. I was the emcee, and in fact the playing field coordinator as well as the head referee in cognito. It was my decision and mine alone to decide when and if to shut off a team for a timeout violation. The other referees, whom by the way did an outstanding job of showing constraint for a myriad of tiny violations throughout the event - were in charge of shutting off robots during the match for violating the tipping, pinning, and stepping out of bounds issues. Getting back to the incident at hand - From my vantage point, the person making the repairs and myself were in constant communication - he told me what he was doing and about how long it would take to fix the problem. I was looking over his shoulder and analyzing the situation, while evaluating if he could indeed fix the robot the way he said he was trying and not BSing me. I made the decision and asked him to fix it faster, he was struggling to get a trantorque coupling screwed tight around a drive axle. In my opinion, I didn't think that this was a major violation and as Joe Johnson has stated - the decisions must have enough flexibility to allow teams to compete when the robot repairing is a possibility. Taking into account that this was a finals match, I decided to allow them to complete the repair which in my opinion was doable in a minute or so, at the most. Although it WAS a tough call, I also will tell you that given anyone of the finalist being in the same situation - I would have done the same for any of them. Having competed in FIRST for the past 6 years, when it comes down to the final matches - most of the teams will tell you that they WANT to know that their opponents were giving there all, and that they did not win by deating a broken robot.
Anyways, I just want to end by Thanking everyone that attended the CDI, I hope you will return next year. I can assure you that we try our hardest to put on a quality event and try to take into consideration that teams have put alot of effort into the robots and often travel long distances to attend. I will try to do better next year, taking this issue into consideration when we develop the game and rules, and most importantly during the event. I applogize to anyone that feels they were cheated by my ruling - I wish you well in the upcoming FIRST season. In honor of today being Thanksgiving - I thank all of you for making the event what it was and thank my counterparts and Chief Delphi teamates for supporting me and the referees. Have a Great day!