2007 Lone Star Regional

[newton418]

Originally Posted by M. Krass

I would be thrilled if the referees took the time to tell the teams receiving the penalties how, why and when the penalty was assessed.

Thrilled.

As the driver for 418, I would like to add that the head referee did, in my opinion, an amazing job. There were several times I did not understand, or disagreed with the penalties, and every time I talked to him after a match he patiently explained the ruling to me. Though I agree that it would be great if the referees went up to the drive team and explained penalties, considering how much they are already expected to do, I don't know if that would be feasible.

As for the red card, I believe we (team 418) received the red card. I decided to not approach the referees on the red card decision due to the chaos and heightened emotions; however, this is my understanding of what happened:

I (the 418 robot) drove across the field in 2nd gear (around 9 ft/sec) and 1745 approached us at the same time. Having just received a 10 point ramming penalty, I slowed down, then decided to push through them to get to 118 and 476. While attempting to push them, they got on top of our robot and were close to falling. I then tried to back off, but realized we had become tangled. It is my belief, based on no evidence, that this was interpreted by the referees as us attempting to push 1745 over, which is reasonable grounds for a red card. I would just like to say, as the driver of the 418 robot, it was never my intention to flip their robot, in fact, I was just as interested in backing off as the were. Well, eventually 1745 managed to back off of us, pulling our battery cables in the process. Without our main battery plugged in, we were dead for the rest of the match.

Regardless, it has been an amazing day. Congratulations to team 118, 476 and 1745 for their hard fought win today, and thanks to 1421 and 16 for being amazing alliance partners