Video Review Needs to Happen Now

[Kevin Leonard]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

So, your solution to the time delay is to add additional volunteers? With a potentially different interpretation of the rules, and who quite possibly did not see the event first-hand given that they were reviewing another match?

You're essentially adding another "key volunteer" position. Something that many events already struggle to fill.




So, the district system is over then? Because you're not going to find many high school gyms with the scaffolding/catwalk to support an overhead camera like that. Heck, I'd bet more than 50% of regionals would have to find new venues as well, as plenty of college gyms and convention centers wouldn't be able to support that.


I've watched plenty of videos. Mistakes will always be made, but mistakes are part of any sport. Not just FRC. Video replay is not a panacea to fix those officiating errors, which is my point. It's a lot of added cost and complexity, for minimal return. There's still plenty of opportunity for blown calls. Anyone who has followed the NHL this season, and its roll out of expanded video review, will attest to that. More people are complaining about the additional video review than any other officiating issue this season.


That "simple solution" isn't viable in the majority of FRC venues. That simple solution doesn't solve anything regarding interactions underneath bumpers. Specifically, that system cannot answer close calls in terms of CROSSINGS this year, because it cannot see underneath the frame/bumpers of a robot to know if its wheels fully cleared the defense.

I believe Ryan Dognaux explained a pretty low cost solution to this problem.

And all you seem to be doing right now is attempting to refute someone's position using examples of challenges to the idea. Challenges that can be worked through instead of pretending they're insurmountable. What's your alternative?

If your alternative is to pretend the problem doesn't exist, I have to disagree. Students getting turned off to a career in science and technology due to a referee's call isn't something we like to see in FIRST.

Personally, I would implement a hardware solution like the one described by Ryan and only allow for official challenges and video review in eliminations to start, with each alliance getting a "challenge" coupon of some sort.