[YMTC]: field of view

[Kevin Sevcik]

I've said this before elsewhere, but I'll repeat. The very first year FIRST had alliances, a highly similar question was asked in Q&As. Teams wanted to know if they could deploy a peacock tail and sit in front of the opposing alliance station to block their vision. The GDC declared this illegal as they ruled it was not within the spirit of competition. The proposed situation is slightly different in that the Redateam is presumably only blocking vision of the rack, and not sitting in front of the opposing station blocking the entire field. I also know that the previous ruling doesn't apply this year, and there aren't any rules that specifically apply to this, but I still think it's illegal. Here's my reasoning:

First, there is the rule against strategies aimed at damaging or destroy other robots. I feel the intent there is to prevent teams from disabling a robot and rendering it completely unable to function in a match. This is a bit of a stretch, but entirely blocking a team's vision prevents them from doing just about anything. Especially with any kind of safety.

Second and probably more pertinent, R46 prohibits many items. Including speakers and audio devices that are loud enough that they could cause a distraction or otherwise influence the outcome of a match. I think the implication here is that your robot is competing against the opposing robots. Your robot is not competing with the opposing drivers, and you should not be using it solely to impair and disadvantage those drivers. Impair the functioning and efficiency of their robot, as by using your ramps to guard spider legs, sure. But impairing the drivers by blinding them while not touching their robots... no. I'm pretty sure that's very clearly illegal.