[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Joachim

Unfortunately, our team also learned (from three seasons' experience) to do the same thing, did it twice in one match (with two pushes or "rams" in one set and three in another), and damaged another robot doing it. Result: the team was DQ'd for "excessive force", one hour after the match in question was over. There were no warnings or calls made during the match, nor immediately after when the damaged team complained.

I asked the head of all officials and judges, who gave us the DQ news, why the call was "excessive force" and not "intentional damage", since the second term was in the game manual, the first one not. (Presumably the "intent" of "intentional damage" must be judged by the referees on the field at the time, and not by a committee of all refs reviewing damage in the pits, as happened here.) At first he stood by his position that it was in the game manual, then shifted to say "excessive force" was in the referee manual. When I said "I don't think I've seen the referee manual" he said "you're not supposed to."

I don't have anything to say other than that's just ridiculous. A DQ an hour after a match, referencing a non-existent rule interpretation from a document teams can't read (and thus can't know whether or not they'll break said rule)?

Is this seriously the standard for FTC refereeing?