North Star Regional...

[Jon Stratis]

The head ref declared it to be "field debris", similar to a dead ball that comes loose and starts bouncing around. It all depends on whether the head ref determines something like that to be "field debris" or a "field fault".

It's a tricky situation, to be sure...

We don't replay matches when parts break off a robot and sit on the field, even if another robot ends up getting stuck on them - that's just "field debris".

All cases of "field fault" I've witnessed were caused by the FMS barfing - either crashing or causing issues with the pedestal lights or issues with scoring that couldn't be resolved after the fact.

I don't know that I've ever seen part of the field come loose and interfere with robot performance before. It is unfortunate, I think everyone there would have liked to see a nice clean match to decide things in the semi's... but as I told my kids when they had calls go against them "That's how the game works. Time to move on and prep for whatever is next".