Just noticed a Q&A that teams may want to keep handy for their upcoming events. Sharing because I haven’t seen it discussed much, but apologies if this is a duplicative effort.
Q168 Pit Crew during Playoffs Limitations?
This section of the manual explicitly allows 3 additional pit crew members during the Playoffs. What does this mean? May those 3 team members accompany the team to the queueing area to be able to maintain the robot between playoff matches? Can the FTA/HR put limitations on this? Can they change the number of allowed pit crew members? Can they change when the pit crew is allowed to join the drive team (QF, SF, Finals)? if limitations/exceptions exist can they please be added to the manual?
Answer
Yes, pit crew members may accompany the DRIVE TEAM to the queue and are expected to help DRIVE TEAM members to service the ROBOT as needed (safely). There are no provisions for exceptions where FIELD STAFF can eliminate or modify this allowance.
This is not a surprising answer (at least to me), but event staff may not be well aquatinted with this section of the manual, so always arm yourself with the facts.
I think the mess with this becomes when teams can bring more of their pit with them to the field area.
I don’t think there’s a way it can be codified. Though, it needs to be mentioned somewhere. “Playoff pits” is mentioned as an exception to “only work on the robot in your pit” but never defined outside of that “for example” mention.
With some venues simply not having the space, it can’t be “all rounds.” It needs to be communicated in some way so it’s a known thing and applied as consistently as possible. If there’s space, there should be pits for as many rounds as possible.
You’re always allowed to bring three people (and presumably whatever safe tools they can carry in/out of queue) . If events are able to extend beyond that (additional people and/or full pit areas) they should announce the plan to all teams at the start of playoffs.
I’m glad this QA exists, this was a major issue and complaint we and other alliances had at SBPLI2 who were only allowing the drive team into the queuing area. They insisted that this rule only applied during the finals and didn’t apply to QF or SF.