We’ve been to worlds only twice and in both no inspectors came around to check our bag lockout form. They just told us to open them up and start working. Does that mean there is no bag rule for worlds?
In the past there have been FRC blog posts about this exact topic, I suspect we’ll get one soon.
Right, I’ve seen those in past years. But does that mean that they took away the bag rule or that the honor rule is still in effect and they expect us to follow it but just won’t be checking. Just want to know if I can break into my bagged bot without any bad karma following me around for the rest of my life.
This was the blog post last year for Championship in Detroit - https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc/blog/2018-first-champ-detroit-pizza-unbag
The wording there implies that they won’t be checking. But since this is an event in 2019 there is the expectation that you come into the event bagged and having followed the bag rules since your last event up until you load in. Nothing there says that they’ve taken away the bag rule, so the expectation is that you’ve still followed it.
Ultimately, it’s all on the honor system and (assuming they don’t check), no one will know except your own team. And like @krf I’d expect there to be a blog post on Tuesday saying they won’t be checking in Houston and a week later in Detroit. But you’ve (presumably) followed the rules thus far this year for the bag, why would you consider breaking it now?
No you can not access your robot right now according to the rules. They quite specifically say the robot must remain bagged between any two events.
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Given the ‘You Bring It’ Pilot, I’m not so sure we’ll get that blog post this year. Since the pilot is limited to Detroit, maybe Houston will still get it, but it would be odd to treat the two events differently. But like all of you, I’m sitting here waiting to see what happens!
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I’m not considering breaking it. I just wanted to know if I was following a non-existent rule.
Thanks all for the clarification.
Jon, I did not think the “You Bring It” Pilot program meant that you could show up with an unbagged robot. I assumed that it just meant that you bring it yourself, in the bag, rather than shipping it.
We transport our own robots, in the bag, to district events here in NC. We have to have the bag and lockup forms inspected prior to unbagging at each event. I assumed that this “you Bring It” program would work like that.
Aren’t those two thoughts a strange pair? “Here’s one way they’re different” “It’d be odd if they’re different” 
To be fair, this doesn’t really make sense. That’s why people are thinking you are considering breaking the rule. The guidance you reference states it’s alright to unbag your robot once you get there and get to work. In that guidance, it’s implied the robot is still in the bag. It’d be an unreasonable interpretation to suggest that guidance allows for unbagging prior. The only way your question makes sense is if unbagging prior were allowed.
Realize that was last years guidance. A question was ask this year about opening the bag to remove the bumpers. The team was told that the bag rules were still in effect and to email first directly with their problem. Houston is short volunteers because it is Easter weekend. I expect bag will be canceled before the event starts, that is just an expectation.
I think @Jon_Stratis is saying that specifically because there is the “You Bring It” pilot, that they may ask teams to have an inspector check the forms/tag before unbagging, while pointing out it would be weird to have the events be done differently.
He was trying to say that if there was no rule and we weren’t expected to bag the robots, then he would unbag it. But now he knows that there is a rule, so he won’t.
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Thank you for defending my honor. =)
I know sometimes in the past when you get to the event they will announce over the PA you can just take the bag off of your robot. I think that might be more due to not having enough people to check fast enough.
If your waiting to take the bag off and it takes an hour for them to check the 400+ teams before they get to you to unbag, that’s really not fair. So telling everyone they can just take off the bag at the same time is kind of a way to make it a little more fair I would think.
I would hope no one unbags their robot until they are specifically told they can. (And in michigan we also trailer our robots to events inside the bag) Although the truth is it has ALWAYS been on the honor system. You can just as easily fake the paperwork I guess, but I would say that bad karma would definitely follow you if you don’t specifically read from an official FIRST source that you can unbag.
For what it’s worth, there was at least one year (early in the bag and tag era) that we checked bags at champs. It may have taken an hour or two, only because that’s how long it took everyone to load in to St. Louis and get their crates open. Given that you could only have so many buses/trailers pulled up to unload at once, it created a natural staggered start that made it fairly easy for inspectors to keep up with the demand.
Keep in mind, Early in the bag & tag era only effected a small number of teams that had to bag their robot. Most of us were in crates unbagged. IE the crate was the bag for all you new people. 
The year in thinking of was probably the first year everyone did bag and tag.
As an inspector at worlds, we don’t usually ch co the lockup form, but are stationed around the pits during load in to watch and see if any bots are not in a bag when teams take their crate off. Either way, the robot needs to stay in the bag until you get there.