It looks like there will be human players in the 2010 game.
Your team must be ready to practice at the designated times and on the specified fields. If your team/robot cannot be ready for your practice time slot, don’t forfeit your team’s practice time entirely. Send in your human player to practice alone.
](http://usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Community/FRC/Game_and_Season__Info/2010_Assets/03_At%20the%20Events.pdf)
It must be a very important role if we are practicing without the robot.
This is standard procedure.
For the last I don’t know how many years, this line has been in the rulebook. And, in competition matches, having a human player when the robot doesn’t make it keeps you from getting a loss when your alliance wins.
Last year, the human player was critical. The year before, the robocoach wasn’t necessarily as critical. It varies year to year.
From the 2008 FRC Manual
All teams will receive a comprehensive list of practice times. Your team must be ready to
practice at the designated times and on the specified fields. If your team/robot cannot be
ready for your practice time slot, you team may still send your human player to practice alone.
In the 2008 game the human player had no role which did not involve the robot, so I wouldn’t read too much into what is there in the manual.
Even so, under those circumstances, the human player should still go to represent your team!
Sending your human player to practice (or some team representative if it turns out there is no human player) is simply being gracious to your fellow teams and the queuing volunteers. They will then know that you aren’t just blowing them off. And a team in the fill-in line will be able to prepare to enter the field in your place.
Bingo, well said Gary.
A simple courtesy that would help everyone involved.
In addition to being the polite thing to do, sending the human player when the robot isn’t available also ensures that someone on the drive team has had a chance to see how queuing is working.
If you are having a rough inspection day and don’t get the robot out for any practice matches, it’s nice to have at least one member of the drive team who’s been through queuing before you report to queuing for your first qualification match. ::safety:: This is particularly important if you are a rookie team, have an inexperienced drive team, or are at a regional you haven’t competed in before.
Although the queuing experience is fairly standard and the queuing volunteers will take care of you, reporting for the first live match is much less stressful when someone knows little things like at what point the flag is issued (if there are flags), what the traffic flow is, where the cart goes when the robot is on the field, or any other venue or seasonal quirks. If you’ve had enough trouble that you’re in that situation, anything you can do to bring the stress down a notch is worth the time.
It’s also a good habit to develop. Most of you out there know this already but if your robot can’t make or is late for a real match, if you have a human player (or any member of the drive team) there, your team will get the points and even the win earned by your alliance. If you don’t have a rep there, you get nothing.