North Star Regional...

[Bryan Herbst]

Originally Posted by audietron

A team should not have to go out of the way to put a ball into a goal just because a piece of the field is likely to come off. The gates come off often, yes and a driver knows that they should not slam into it but when just turning and grazing it causes it to fall off, There is a problem.

Looking at the video again, it looks like the team caught the gap between the two sheets with their bumper, then drove forward and turned so that their robot was still moving into the gate at an angle. I wouldn't call that just a graze.

The other problem here seems to be that the drivers didn't notice the gate had come off. If they had seen that, they could have gone to the other goal to put the ball in.

I agree that what happened during the match was unfortunate. However, I agree with the ref in deciding that it was not a failure of the field.