Legality of Team 190's Mechanism?

[SteveJanesch]

At the risk of sounding too harsh, I have to say sorry, guys, but I just don't have any sympathy for 190 here. They've been doing FRC a long time and have demonstrated the ability to build great robots within the rules of the game. It's pretty clear to me that they conceived, designed, and deliberately built a robot that is in the gray area of the rules. They didn't write the GDC and say "here's exactly what we're trying to do: is it legal?", but danced around it by asking from what height they could drop the ball. I have to believe they had time to ask directly if what they were doing was legal and get a response. Others here have admitted to thinking of similar designs and abandoned them because it wasn't clear whether it was legal or not. 190 proceeded and got caught out. That's the way it works when you play it close to the edge - sometimes you go over. Learn from your mistake, and better luck next year.

Steve