T.R.I. will be played using the 2014 Aerial Assist rules with the following modifications.
1. No inspection, Honor system on legality. +5 pounds allowed. Gross / obvious violations of robot rules will be identified by the referees and must be corrected before the robot continues.
**2. **There is no zone requirement for possession. In other words, a possession anywhere on the field will be considered a possession in all 3 zones.
3. A trussed ball which is untouched by another robot and enters the low goal will be considered scored.
**4. **The basic foul of G21 is removed. Continuous / repeated violations will still be a technical foul. Contact outside the safety zone will still be enforced.
G21: ROBOTS may not extend outside the FIELD.
Violation: If intentional or if ROBOT extends into the SAFETY ZONE, NO CALL. If continuous or repeated violations, TECHNICAL FOUL. If contact with anything outside the SAFETY ZONE, RED CARD and the ROBOT will be DISABLED.
5. G14 will be modified to allow for “no call”.
G14: Strategies aimed solely at forcing the opposing ALLIANCE to violate a rule are not in the spirit of FRC and are not allowed. Rule violations forced in this manner will not result in assessment of a penalty on the target ALLIANCE.
Violation: NO CALL unintentional, inconsequential, or part of regular game play as judged by the referees. TECHNICAL FOUL for all others.
**6. **G12 will be modified so that an immediately rectified possession of the opposing alliance ball (from a truss shot, human play or field crew action, etc) will not be penalized at the discretion of the referees.
G12: An ALLIANCE may not POSSESS their opponent’s BALLS. The following criteria define POSSESSION :
“carrying” (moving while supporting BALLS in or on the ROBOT or holding the BALL in or on the ROBOT),
“herding” (repeated pushing or bumping),
“launching” (impelling BALLS to a desired location or direction via a MECHANISM in motion relative to the ROBOT), or
“trapping” (overt isolation or holding one or more BALLS against a FIELD element or ROBOT in an attempt to shield them).
Violation: NO CALL if immediately rectified unintentional and inconsequential FOUL, if unintentional and inconsequential (i.e. does not significantly impact MATCH play). TECHNICAL FOUL per consequential instance. TECHNICAL FOUL per extended instance. If strategic, RED CARD for the ALLIANCE.
**7.**G27 will be modified to remove the words “high speed or repeated aggressive ramming”. We’re keeping the game play resulting in portion though. This is because everybody has a different definition of what qualifies aggressive ramming. But to stress, we are keeping the gameplay resulting in…
G27: Strategies aimed at and/or game play resulting in the damage, destruction or inhibition of opponent ROBOTS via actions such as attachment, tipping, or entanglement of ROBOTS are not allowed.
Elimination Alliance Selection
The top 8 seeds will be the alliance captains but their selection order will be randomly assigned. Alliance captains may not select other alliance captains. A serpentine order will be in place for first two selection of an alliance. The fourth members of each alliance will be randomly assigned to them from the remaining teams.
**1. **Top 8 Teams = Alliance Captain
**2. **Top 8 Team numbers are placed into a hat, the first team drawn is now the #1 alliance captain and allowed to select their first alliance partner from the pool of teams that are not captains.
**3. **This continues through all 8 teams.
**4. **The last team drawn from the hat is allowed to select two teams just like a normal 8 seed alliance captain and we continue back up in reverse order like a normal serpentine draft.
**5. **After all alliances have three teams, the remaining 8 team numbers will be placed in a hat and they will be randomly selected by the alliance captains in 1 - 8 order.
6. This will end with each alliance consisting of 4 teams. During elimination play each member of the alliance must play in one of the first two matches of each series. (In practice this means after the first match, an alliance must switch in the team that didn’t play in the first round). Alliance captains must turn in a line up card to the head ref prior to each elimination match and may not deviate from that line up for that match.
**7. **One member from the non-playing team may be part of the drive team group and will be considered a COACH.
8. Declines are not allowed unless the team does not want to compete in the elimination rounds.
Thanks to the IRI planning committee for many of these rule changes.
