Andy Baker is the BEST REF EVER

[suneel112]

Even though I though he was a tiny bit too harsh against 469, I completely agree with his intentions. The truth about FIRST is there are two ways to win matches:

A. Fairly
B. Unfairly

Under fairly, you can score more points than your opponent or prevent your opponent from scoring points (see below).

I think Andy Baker was correct in his judging of the line between defensive behavior (allowed by FIRST) and offensive behavior (Not allowed, or commended, by FIRST). In my opinion, any move that can cause serious mechanical or electrical faliure (to an otherwise perfectly functioning robot, which has its batteries charged ) is offensive. Las Guerrillas' extended "spear" used against Cooney (269) when they were hanging could have caused serious electrical or mechanical faliure. In a nutshell, charging (going back and revving up for a full speed knock or using an arm to "slap") is offensive but blocking (using a flat side of the robot and pushing the opponent) is defensive and perfectly okay. I know from personal experience how it feels to have serious electrical or mechanical faliure from charging (but lets not get into that ), and it is not a good feeling.

Andy Baker is probably the best ref in this respect, because he is fair and doesn't allow robots to play unfairly.

Kudos to you, Andy Baker.

[Paul H]

I agree totally. Most refs don't have the guts to make the tough calls, so they focus on trivial ones and no violence issues get solved. Well done.

Also, the yellow/red card system worked very well, and I think FIRST should implement something like it in the future.

[RBrandy]

Andy removed himself from, and the other refs, from at least one match where the refs were some how in affiliaction with a team involved in a decision. I thought that was awesome so there would be no rumors of him trying to sway in their teams way.

Hats off and thanks to you Andy Baker. You really made mine/Team 93's weekend enjoyable.

[Joe Matt]

So Andy, what DON'T you do well?

I mean, great team leader, parent, survivor, Woody Flowers Award winner, AND a great ref, geeze Andy, what don't you do well?

[KyleGilbert45]

I completely agree with all of the calls made by the refs on both Friday and Saturday. I say this because they called everything they saw, just as a ref should. Not call one thing one day and not make a call on it the next day.

About the 469 call, they were given a yellow card early [I can't remember if it was the day before or that same day]. So the red card was the right call since they had already been warned for the same maneuver. I do not think any of those two calls were “harsh”



It is also great that some of the refs pulled themselves away from some decisions since their teams were involved in the match.

[shamuwong]

As a driver for Team 469, I would like to share the events from my point of view. I appreciate the judges' efforts to keep IRI a fun event for all, and I do not have any hard feelings towards any of them for making that call. However, I had a few problems with some of the judging.

The first incident that got us called for "spearing" was when we went for a 2x ball that was on the platform. There was a capped small goal right in front of our control station, and a robot hanging that was covered in 1" nylon webbing with large gaps in it. In an attempt to gingerly grab the ball, one of our grippers on our arm slipped through the gaps. I can't tell if we clamped down on them, but I saw that we were breaking the surface of their robot, made sure our grippers were open, and told our driver to carefully back up. When the call was made, I was unsure what we did to get the warning, as I did not see anything wrong with our actions.

The final call, which got us disqualified, was also unintended for damage. After dumping balls off at the human player station, we saw 269 go for the hang and attempted to stop them by pushing them down with our arm. The grippers were open, so I closed them on the way to the platform to avoid damage. Unfortunately, they closed as we got there onto 269's arm. Trying to avoid any entaglement, I opened them, and our driver backed off. I was angry with the call as I tried my best to not damage other robots playing defense with a defensive mechanism, yet got called for trying to intentionally damage 269.

What made me a bit more flustered was what seemed like a double standard. Apparently, they did not feel that having a robot fly from halfway across the field straight into us (twice!) repeatedly was not intended to damage us (and I'm sure it wasn't, but we got called on it), but it broke a weld on our frame. Nor was a gripper going straight through our back door system spearing (I believe this was unintentional, but we got called on it also), or a robot intentionally grabbing ours by the frame entaglement.

Those are the events from my point of view. You can agree or disagree, but I'm sure we can both accept that Andy Baker is a great referee, even if he did make some calls against us, as it shows that he cares about teams and not just scores. I commend him for his efforts to keep the amount of repairs low and fun high. I just think there were a couple errors made. I look forward to next year's IRI competition. Anyways, back to the topic. Let's not make this about 469. Andy Baker is the best ref because...

[ngreen]

980 got a yellow card for grabbing 469's frame with there gripper's. The way it played out it deserved a yellow card and they didn't do it again.

For the first yellow card I can't remember the circumstance so I have no comment.

For the second I watched 469 robot come across the field to keep Cooney's robot from winching onto to bar. They entangled with them and tried to push them down and then after realizing there mistake backed off. I know it was an unintentional reaction but still would merit a yellow card. With the previous yellow card that would create a dismissal.

ANDY did great in all the situations mentioned above. Removing himself and making tough calls.

I thought IRI was the most clean and fair the games been played all year long. I think the ref tried hard to be fair and saw other red and yellow card given to other teams. Maybe 469 had a little target on their backs after a fairly aggressive (IMHO) showing at nationally. As driver's you just have to see that and put yourself in the best situation for your team. At IRI this might have meant playing a little more conservative (like a star basketball player with four fouls). I still commend you for playing all out but little decision can make a big difference.

[Solace]

the first yellow card went to 716 for ramming an already flipped over robot. Pat (the driver) toned it down a bit after that, seeing as the rest of his team threatened to put his muzzle back on. don't know if they ever actually did that, as it was hard to get anywhere within a few feet of where he was chained without getting bitten.

[Andy Baker]

Thank you all for the nice comments.

I'd like to say a few things about reffing at IRI. The crew is amazing... the other refs are also great. I seriously claim that the IRI reffing crew was the best crew put together this year. With that, I aslo get about 10-12 people who ask to be refs at IRI, but we can't put them all on the field. We all know it is a tough job, because so many excellent teams attend and put in much effort to compete at the highest level.

As everone has said, reffing is hard to do. Of course, we don't make everyone happy. Also, we are not perfect, as I mistakingly claimed on 2 different occaisons that robots were not hanging when they should've been (neither call mattered in the whole scheme of things, which was fortuneate).
[edit - by the way, I was obviously frustrated with my mistake on this. Thanks go out to many people who calmed me down after being flustered. It took me a few matches to get back into a groove. Who enjoys being wrong?]

As for the call against 469, I have heard several opinions about this. Some people say that we should've not called it while others said that it was the right call to make. I'll tell ya, it is easy to "let things slide" by looking the other way. But, we decided not to do that in this case. The 469 team came to me after the call was made to debate the issue. Once I listened to what they said, I told them that we am going to stick with the DQ call. While they still disagreed with the call, they acted graciously and were not out of line about it. 469 is a great team. I admire them, and I regret that the situation happened.

At IRI, over the years, we tend to make many calls. Heck, team 45 got flagged for "breaking the plane of the alliance station" probably 10-12 times at this year's IRI, and I heard about it EACH TIME it happened, from my TechnoKat teammates. "We can't go in there more than 1/4 inch!!". We ended up joking about it, but that is an example of how strict we are with the rules.

IRI is a great competition. There are many reasons it is a success. One of those many reasons is because the referee crew is strict and makes the tough calls. We have the luxury of going through an entire FIRST season as competitiors, learning from past referees' experiences and now we get to make the calls. Teams seem to like this style of refereeing.

I try to talk to many of the teams who attend IRI for the first time. Many said "we like it... the refs make the calls that need to be made".

Reffing, to me, is a thrill. It is a roller-coaster. I would love to go through a competition where the referees are never mentioned, and all we did was just count up the points at the end. But, that is not how it is. Tough calls need to be made. Some are missed, while others are not. We do our best.

Andy B.