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Re: [FRC Blog] The Right Thing to Do
Here's video of both finals matches so everyone can follow along at home:
Finals 1 Finals 2 As George said during both finals matches there was a tug of war between 4486 and 399. During Finals 1 they got locked up in a tug of war. This was strategic on our part, with the hope that even if 4486 didn't get possession of 1-2 of the cans, they would at least tie up 399 for a period of time, with 399's alliance losing one of their key robots while we lose our lowest scoring robot. During Finals 1 there was a can resting with the top half fully contained inside our landfill and the bottom half still over the step. After a battle for the can, 399 reached over the step and grabbed the can, through the hole at the top, and pulled it off the step. This can was later scored. After Finals 1, there was no red card issued to the red alliance. We sent our driver to the question box to ask why there was no red card called. The head referee said "the can wasn't fully on our side of the step and it wouldn't have affected the outcome of the match". At this point one of our mentors, Rene Haro began going through the rule book while myself and Kiet Chau worked with our pit crew to get our second can grabber back on the robot (it broke in SF6, so in F1 we only had 1 can grabber). The rule as written in the manual was very ambiguous for this type of a situation. For example, prior to yesterday the diagram used to describe G18 did not have situation F and G. By some, this could certainly be interpreted as the object had to be completely on one side of the step for G18 to apply. Between matches Rene Haro, a former mentor for and alumnus of 399 went to speak to 399's drive coach Dave Vorceck. Rene explained that he thought what they were doing was illegal and that he should go ask the head ref for clarification. Dave went and spoke to the head ref, who gave the same explanation as he gave to our driver. During Finals 2 the same situation happened. 4486 and 399 got locked up in a tug of war, a can came to rest with the top half on our side of the step and the bottom half on the step itself. 399, now playing off the head ref's interpretation of the rule, grabbed the can from the top and pulled it over to their side and proceeded to score it. Again, no red card was called. Our driver again, went to the question box and asked for clarification and was given the same response he was after Finals 2. At this point Rene began pulling up the Q&A and found the Q&A ruling posted by FRC364 back on January 21st which covered the situation we were seeing. However, by this point the step had already been pulled up and the totes cleared from the field. Rene took the Q&A ruling to the Regional Director who in turn showed it to the head ref. It was at this point that the head ref admitted he was wrong and that in both situations 399 should have received a red card. This was obviously very disappointing to hear. As Frank mentioned in his post, the head ref apologized immediately after closing ceremonies. In fact, he was waiting for us in our pit right after closing ceremonies. Admitting your wrong in any situation is tough and something that most people struggle with, so I give him credit for this. Does it hurt? Yes. Does it feel good? No. However, there is no one to blame in this situation. The head ref was making an interpretation off of a rule that was vague and not maintained over the last couple months. We've played with and against 399 many times over the years and I firmly believe that they were just playing inside the head ref's interpretation of the rule. Something most of us would have probably done. When I wrote Frank about the situation a couple of days ago, I made it clear that we weren't trying to change the results of the event (not that that would ever happen), but rather trying to prevent this from deciding a district championship, a division or the world championship. It's unfortunately that we were on the wrong end of this, but at least it did lead to yesterday's update and hopefully this doesn't happen later on. |
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