In the rules, I do not recall seeing a rule against alliance robots in contact with each other. Furthermore, in section 6.5.2, a robot contacting an alliance robot qualified for ONSTAGE points is still eligible to be ONSTAGE. Does that mean that if a robot were to have a double buddy climb (able to climb the entire alliance), the alliance would qualify for nine (3x3) ONSTAGE points and two HARMONY points, thus earning the ENSEMBLE RP?
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This is an interesting idea. I just wanted to point out that the alliance would actually receive 4 harmony points for the triple climb.
in 6.5.2 it says
“An ALLIANCE achieves HARMONY if more than 1 ROBOT is ONSTAGE via direct or transitive support from a single chain. HARMONY points, as specified in Table 6-2 are awarded per additional ROBOT.”
i believe transitive support implies that you can be supported by another robot that is supported by the chain
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It’s not disallowed and it has some pretty huge advantages given the difficulty of the trap and the point cutoff for the ensemble bonus. That being said, it sounds pretty terrifying, and the 12 inch extension limit certainly doesn’t help anything.
Bet citrus makes it work 
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Based on this reddit post It seems both possible and a great strategy for ensemble!
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The 12 inch extension only counts on the horizontal plane though and the robot can only be 4 foot tall MAX per G413. The only way to get by this and get the extra height for a buddy climb would be to climb at an angle.
People are making this seem way easier than it is. The height and volatility of the chain creates an issue where building your robot around climbing with a buddy probably prevents you from climbing alone (without touching the ground anyway) and building your climb around climbing solo means a buddy would probably touch the ground.
The only way I can see doing this is by shoving your lift all the way to the edge of your frame, gripping your partner with a cheescake strap (5940 2021) and then having removable ballast on the opposite side of the robot depending on if you plan to climb solo.
Would love to see it done, but doesn’t seem fun.
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I love that my reddit post got linked on here lmao
Its def a tough challenge, but being able to get a ranking point basically on your own would be huge. I think high-level teams will figure it out
I don’t think this is accurate, as the game manual says that you get the harmony bonus by having more than one robot on the chain, not that you gain more of a harmony bonus by having 3 on a chain. I thought it was just a fixed 2 point bonus by having multiple robots, not that it stacks
In rule 6.5.2 it states that
“HARMONY points, as specified in Table 6-2 are awarded per additional ROBOT.”
so you would end up getting 4 additional stage points for a triple* climb
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Oh my bad then, I guess I didn’t see that rule.
I wonder how it would look tbh, you’d want to be on a higher part of the chain I’d think, since it hangs pretty low
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I don’t see a way to do it without cheesecake, and it would have to be pretty non-trivial cheesecake!
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I’m pretty sure in the rules, it says you can be supported by the truss. This means you could make it so that your bot would swing into the truss so instead of touching the ground it runs into the truss.
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Definition of Onstage:
G415 (thank you MOCTA)
You cannot climb the truss. However, you can be touching the truss via bumpers.
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Right. This is what I meant. If you have your climber mechanism towards say the back of your robot and you put the back of your robot’s bumpers against the truss, when you climb the front of the robot would try to go down as it would be the heavier part but the back of the bumpers would run into the truss stopping your bot from tipping.
You could then have your buddy climb machanism on the back of your bot as well meaning the climbing mechanism would be relatively in the center of the two robots’ combined mass effectively balancing it out if you wanted to climb in the middle.
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Yep, this is pretty much exactly the strategy I was thinking about. Use the truss as support on the way up. Also being closer to the truss means you’re pulling from a higher point on the chain
Neat idea, might make sense for trap too honestly. Probably easier than doing a double buddy climb to stay balanced 
. Still think gripping an arbitrarily janky robot with 12 inches of extension is a serious hat trick, and if I’m on the receiving end of that offer, I would definitely be apprehensive.
Not saying it’s impossible, but we’re definitely not attempting this, and I doubt many will.
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