The refs should know the rules, shouldn't they?

[Jay Lundy]

I believe that in this situation the refs' ruling is correct. Here is rule T11, including the sentence added to it in Team Update #7 (I added the bold for emphasis):

Each team in an alliance must compete in at least one elimination match in each series (quarterfinals, semi-finals, and finals) unless a team’s robot is unable to move along the carpet under its own power. Therefore, the team that did not compete in the first match of a series should compete in the second match of the series. Alliance Captains will be the final judges of whether or not a robot is unable to move. FIRST urges all teams to use Gracious Professionalism when making this judgment so as to be fair to both opponents and partners.

The first sentence says that each team must compete once in a series. This "must" means that if rule is broken, the team will be DQed.

However, the second sentence only states that the teams "should" swap out after a match, and this means that this sentence does not necessarily need to be followed. This sentence was probably added as clarification for teams that were confused.

Therefore, like the refs said, if a team wins the first round, they must swap because if they win again they will be DQed, but if they lose, they lose, so its a lose-lose situation to leave the same two robots in. However, if a team loses the first round, they can leave their best two robots in because if they win they have another round to swap their robots and if they lose they get DQed anyway.

Although I agree that the refs have made some fairly poor decisions, I believe that, according the the rulebook, they are correct in this situation.

Now if this was how first meant for it to be played I have no idea, but we have to follow the rules.