What we learned from week 1

[thefro526]

Originally Posted by Jared341

G30 is called very inconsistently.

For anyone competing in the coming weeks and planning on using the pyramid as a protected area, I suggest you keep the following handy:

Originally Posted by G30

Regardless of who initiates the contact, a ROBOT may not contact an opponent ROBOT

contacting its PYRAMID or
touching the carpet in its LOADING ZONE.


Violation: FOUL. If purposeful or consequential, TECHNICAL FOUL. If an opponent's CLIMB is affected, each affected opponent ROBOT will be awarded points for a successful Level 3 CLIMB.

Originally Posted by Q&A Q138

Q138

Q. G30 has different penalties if the act is consequential or purposeful. Please define 'Consequential' and 'purposeful' with respect to violations of G30 in the LOADING ZONE.

A. Consequential means the action has an effect on the outcome of the MATCH. Purposeful means the action was deemed intentional.

Originally Posted by Q&A Q145

Q145

Q. Does this rule also apply to robots that are contacting the pyramid while shooting? That is to say, can a robot contact its pyramid to aim and shoot at its goals and consider this a "safe zone"? Or is this rule only active when climbing the pyramid?

A. [G30] applies regardless of what the ROBOT is doing, so long as it is contacting its PYRAMID.

I think it's very clear to anyone that reads G30, Q138 and Q145 that intentional contact between a robot touching it's pyramid or loading station and a defender/opponent is prohibited and the opponent will be penalized. With that being said, if you are shooting, and that contact causes one of your shots to miss, a technical foul should be assessed as the match score has now been changed (effect on the outcome of the match).

That being said, there was a certain degree of 'right of way' protection that was assumed to have been created by G30 - that being if you're touching/nearly touching the pyramid and attempting to play the game (score) you would more or less be allowed to do what was required to continue playing - which we were told was not the case. Whether or not this will be called uniformly across all events has yet to be seen...

I guess the TLDR here is to go over G30 in detail with the head ref if it's relevant to your strategy, whether it be climbing or shooting, and make sure that if you're touching the pyramid, that it's CLEARLY visible from all/most angles on the field. A few teams had little flags and fiberglass sticks that would deform when they were in contact which seemed to make things a bit easier.