On Rules, Referees, and Rewards (aka Penalties)

[Steve W]

Let me try this again. The first rant I had when spell checking, disappeared.

I would like to thank the starter of this thread for providing me with another soapbox on which to stand.

Are penalties too large? Yes.

Are they being called consistently? No.

Are rules changing again? Yes.

Are rules being called that are not rules? Yes.

Has FIRST gotten the fact that we don't mind rules we just don't like them being changed? No.

FIRST is the only place I know of that a foul basically can cause you to lose the match and your team mates. Penalties should be enforced and be there to deter fouls. In the past FIRST was a little to lenient on penalties. Now they have swung the other way. They need to find the mid point.

The referees must have definitive rules that they can call. This will allow them to be more consistent. This is not meant as a slam on refs as they do the job the best that they can and they are all volunteers. The issue is that many of us attend multiple regionals and can see the inconsistencies.

What's up with the mid season rule changes? Can't they get it right the first time? Even if the rules committee realizes that there are problems, THEY SHOULD NOT be making changes mid season. FIRST claims to want to make things even for all teams so why change rules week 1 to week 6.

This is a big one for me. Tetra over the players station. Where is that rule written down? Where is the update or email blast? Who is making this call anyway? I was told at the last regional I was at was that Benji (FIRST Chief Ref) told the head refs to call breaking the plane over the players station as a robot shut down. What for? OK they say safety. It seems that the game design committee were not worried when they placed the goals right next to the glass of the players station. They also said that they expected pushing and shoving. They also never/have not written a rule about it. The issue of "breaking the plane is nuts. A tetra swinging over the glass and back is not a safety issue. One parked with the tetra over a teams head is. I have seen tetras fly off of a robot and into the players station when the robot is 2 feet from the glass. To have a ref watch for a 1/4 inch breaking of the plane when it is not a penalty is silly. Again I ask, Who is making this call?

Last question. Have I ranted enough and should I stop? YES!