YMTC: worthy of DQ?

[Levin571]

Last week at the UTC New England Regional our team (571) was disqualified during a round by what seems like an unusual circumstance. It was our first round in the qualifiers and about 20 seconds into the round we lost radio (we never found out why but that is unimportant) in order to get the referees attention, our operator called out to her while our mentor tapped on the indicator on the control board flashing the no data/radio. For this we were DQ'ed. In the rules it says that the mentor cannot touch the controllers but in this sort of circumstance is it worthy of a DQing if it is meant to get a referees attention?

I think it depends on the referees....

Ive seen referees call just the joysticks and controls as the "controls" yet then again ive seen some referees say that the entire control pannel (casing surrounding your controls and joysticks included) count....

I think its safer (and best) to just not touch anything at all that would even remotely consider the referees to DQ you.....and in your case, I think the refs were probably right to DQ you. Im sure your mentor didnt intentionally do what they did, but the refs did what they had to do, and if I were in that position, I would have done the same thing.

[BRAVESaj25bd8]

I hate to say it but it was worthy of disqualifictaion. The rules are meant to be called black and white. The less gray area there is, the better. Personally, I always hate to see when this sort of thing happens to a team because it really is a terrible thing to get such a dramatic penalty for. However, if the coach touches the controls, that's what happens. Sorry guys. Hope you did well in your other matches. Good luck at nationals I hope.

[Brandon Holley]

Its all up to what the refs see...sadly in this case they probably did not have a good view of your coach tapping the indicator light

Its the jobs of the referees to make those kinds of calls, and unfortunately for your team, the ref just didn't see it right. This kind of stuff happens all the time, but thats cause robots aren't referees. Im sure if the referee saw what actually happened there wouldnt be a problem, but as you described it, I could see how a ref would get confused.

Your best bet is to just not have ur coach touch anything...obviously

[zdeswarte]

I don't really think you should've been DQ'ed. The rules shouldn't be STRICTLY black and white; the refs are humans (not robots) and can judge accordingly. If your mentor didn't change anything about the robot's movement, then no repercussions should've taken place. People make mistakes, though, and there's really no use for "crying over spilled milk".

[Stephen Kowski]

we had a situation where we got a clarification while i was refereeing @ peachtree....the mentors are not allowed to touch anything that will DIRECTLY CONTROL THE ROBOT....

Then again the ref may have just saw his/her hands near the controls touching something, and these rules in particular are strictly enforced so you should go to great lengths to avoid the refs being able to interpret anything as such (as a coach I put my hands behind my back or in my pockets whenever possible)....

So apparently those refs saw something worthy of a DQ and I won't question it because I wasn't there....every ref ive met is not there to give teams a hard time and normally gives the benifit of the doubt to the teams, but something I assume was apparently wrong to that referee....yeah it was worthy....

p.s. i guess i don't know why your coach HAD to touch rather than just point to it....same effect of getting the ref's attention but no DQ....

[Steve W]

Coaches do not touch controls or anything else unless written in the rules like last year. DQ is my vote.

[Steph]

In Pittsburgh, our team was warned twice in the practice rounds for me (the coach) to watch where my hands were. With all of the music and cheering, sometimes pointing to goals, tetras, etc., is valuable to making sure your instructions were recieved, but I quickly learned to point up high instead of down lower. The last thing I'd want would be to DQ my team from a match for trying to make a point clear and accidentally hitting the controls... It's unfortunate that it happened in your match, but on the bright side I'm sure it'll never happen again Good Luck