YMTC: Bluabot Pushes Red Vision Tetra

[AmyPrib]

Originally Posted by Natchez

With 15 seconds remaining in the rubber match of the Magnolia finals, Redalliance is losing by 2 points when Redabot is the 3rd Redalliance 'bot in the end zone resulting in a 10 point score and an 8 point Redalliance lead. With no hope for Bluabot to score a tetra nor for all 3 Blualliance robots to go "home", Bluabot pushes a nearby red vision tetra toward Redalliance's end zone. With time running out, Bluabot manages to push the vision tetra against Redabot with the other side of the vision tetra touching the carpet outside the end zone.

I would say they get the 10pt bonus for being in the endzone. I do not see anywhere in the rules that a tetra is considered part of their robot in this situation or in any other debatable situation like this. I would say this is a crappy way to lose the points if you were sitting there at the end and the opponent could do that to negate your bonus. As a matter of fact, hopefully this will be cleared up very soon by FIRST with an answer to the following Q/A...

ID: 1852 Section: 4.3.3 Status: Unanswered Date Posted: 4/6/2005
Q: Please identify ANY and ALL cases in which a TETRA is considered and extension of a Robot. Is it ONLY during the HP loading function, or are there other situations this applies?

And also ID1849 and 1851 which ask more specific questions. Hopefully the answer comes back as per the existing rules, that a tetra is only part of a robot in the case of the (HP) loading station (I'm pretty sure that's the only case right now).

The situation below me is an interesting one. I think if the robot would clearly be in the endzone if the tetra were removed, then it should count. However - let's say the robots arm is resting on top of a tetra outside the endzone. If they remove that tetra, the arm most likely falls down and hits the floor, therefore making it outside the endzone. Do the refs remove the tetra to see if that happens? I would say they should, as now it's not a matter of just touching a tetra outside (which should be fine), but now it's being supported in a manner where they shouldn't be considered in the zone.