rip 5 algae backup strategy 1/4-1/7 2025
Still no height limit clarification, will it actually be infinite?
Don’t know why people think FIRST forgot to include one of the most important rules. I agree there are a fair number of mistakes made but I don’t think this is one.
Disappointed they didn’t clarify disabled relating to A-Stop
Referees all get to go to lunch during alliance selection now.
HR probably still has to sick around though @EricH
Nice to the see the clarification in the bumper example image to include overlapping, individual sides.
Is this a change from what was shown at kickoff or was the description before inaccurate?
For example, will the kits from WCP or what was ordered from AM still be accurate?
this is why (under r105)
1" Schedule 40 pipe has an OD of ~1 3/8". They previously listed the OD instead of the pipe size. The field CAD shows 1" pipe.
Edit: Nathan confirms here
Considering that they removed a blue-box example surrounding a hypothetical height limit violation, and it isn’t mentioned elsewhere, I think at this point it’s reasonably safe to assume that the omission indicates that there is no hard height limit. Q&A will say for sure, but that’s a sizeable enough thing that if it was left out by mistake, it probably would have made this update.
In 2016 it wasn’t til Team Update 16 that they set a limit for the height of operator consoles (was previously infinite). It’s only a matter of time til we get some limit I feel. This was the reasoning at the time and keep in mind that was off field, in a stationary position.
Original Text from 2016 Update 16
The primary concern is safety. Even a relatively lightweight object accidentally dropped from 20 or 30 feet in the air could cause significant injury. Secondarily, it is very hard for us to maintain consistency with our original approach of allowing event-by-event decisions regarding safety and potential interference with overhead objects. We know of at least one event at which these tall Operator Consoles were disallowed over safety concerns, and with over 120 official events this year, we can’t guarantee, for example, that every Player Station location even at a given event will have the same overhead space available as every other.
So, as you will see below, we have made the difficult decision to limit the height of Operator Consoles. We have also added an explicit rule that Operator Consoles must be safe. We were extremely reluctant to make this change mid-season, and we are very sorry for the frustration and potential expense this will cause some Teams, and that we did not see this issue coming, but we believe it’s best for FRC overall that this change be put in place.
They were reluctant to change height rules mid season, but they did. This is on a robot so if they are gonna change it they better do it soon… Sooner than week 1 competition at least
Given that they took out the ambiguous item in the blue box regarding height, I think they have reinforced that they meant it not to be there.
Already used the Queuers to help corral the remaining teams, just means a little more coordination is all.
The distances from the carpet were previously reversed (shallow vs deep). They’ve also adjusted them slightly, probably to align with what is in the field diagram documents.
Why are parts of the field already changing? 3.5” is very different from 3.125”
Because someone messed up the dimension that was supposed to be there. Happens every year
Given that the penalty for this would be
Violation: MAJOR FOUL
and that should be interpreted as:
Upon violation, a MAJOR FOUL is assessed against the violating ALLIANCE.
Would that mean an alliance that chooses to not have a Human Player in the Processor Area only gets one Major Foul assessed for the whole match if the Processor gets clogged? It seems like they would include the clause “per additional SCORING ELEMENT” if they meant it another way.
The poor Eemcees have had their proper noun status revoked 
G211 is a thing, and that action could really easily be seen as a Repeated action.
Just sayin’.
I mean, from a readability standpoint it would be nice if FIRST explicitly specified things like this and kept them all together in one coherent section with some nice diagrams (like the bumper ones). Year after year you have to hunt down a number of different rules in different sections and sometimes read between the lines to understand FUNDAMENTAL RULES like the robot size and extension requirements.
It doesn’t need to be this way.
Edit: if you give a freshman the 2025 manual with no prior experience to FRC rule manuals I bet you 95 times out of 100 they would misinterpret the starting configuration rule and tell you the max height this year is 3 ft 6in.