Challenging Matches

[Kims Robot]

Benefit of the doubt - are you 100% sure it was a video? I saw what I thought was the exact same thing about to happen when I was at FLR, a student standing in the question box showing their phone to a mentor and ready to debate a call. As I walked closer, I realized the student had the FRC Game Manual application and was reading a rule from it.

As far as reviewing video replay, I think the reason the rule is written as such (and I don't think they really intended it to be lawyered for will/can/may), is likely because it really isn't fair to the teams unless the venue is equipped with an instant replay booth. Just because one person caught it on their phone or video camera, doesnt make it fair to the next team that didnt happen to be video taping. So the most fair way to deal with it is to say no video replay.

If FIRST was equipped the way the NFL is, then I would fully support instant replay - I too would prefer calls to be correct, but as it stands, FIRST does not have an instant replay booth, thus it is unfair to review the video IMO.

Not to mention that it might make the competition take a WHOLE lot longer if everyone is running to the question box with video and taking up the head ref's time. Yes, Ref's should get the calls right, but the game also needs to proceed in a timely fashion.