[FRC Blog] FRC Expands Regionals to Four Days

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by AllenGregoryIV

Also can we just stop checking bag and tag at this point. If people wanted to cheat they would cheat and there is little we can do about it other than building a culture that has higher standards than that. We aren't finding and pushing the people that are cheating. We are punishing teams that honestly make a mistake with some artificial time penalty of having to get a few signatures and a stern talking to. Why do we even bother? Who does this process help? We have the ability to be a different program. We have the opportunity to set higher standards of trust and respect among competitors and checking bag and tag doesn't help do that.

I agree for the most part... but I did have a team last year up in Duluth who took an unbag period (the kind we give to teams going to district events) the week before. Honest mistake by the team, but completely not legal. In situations like that, the imposed time penalty - the amount of time the robot had been unbagged for, which I think was 4 hours - was necessary, appropriate, and quickly agreed to by all parties (the team, myself, Big Al, FTA and head ref). IMO, it's situations like that which provide a context and importance for all teams who see it, and legitimize the process. At least with checking the forms teams know we're looking at it (and I often chat with the team while doing so, if they're around). If we don't check the forms, then there's no penalty for cheating, and teams could very well start to get a lot looser with it, knowing there's no penalty.