After our first match on Saturday at the palmetto regional, we climb to level 3 pretty much every match using rear stilts, the head ref comes up and says if the stilts touch the wall after we pull forward , it only counts as level 2. Even though the robot doesn’t need the stilts to support it, we can pull our robot back and half the robot hangs off and doesn’t tip.
My complaint is that all teams should have been notified prior to the start of matches about this clarification. The head ref is going up to teams after the mistake is made to notify them.
If any part of the robots weight, or any significant force from the robot is placed on the HAB below level three, it could be considered partially supported. This has been in the rules since day 1, clarified in several Q&As, and several threads here. I wouldn’t be surprised if this question gets asked at every drive team meeting, and if it’s popped up in a team update.
I think you should be thankful the head ref is approaching each team he sees doing this, rather than just scoring them at Level 2 and letting them figure it out. Luckily, you say you are capable of working around this.
It should have been clarified prior to the start of today’s matches via drivers meeting or an announcement , you shouldn’t call it one way the day before, and let teams think what there doing is ok, and then another way the next day…
Would you rather the ref not correct his calls if he realizes they are not in line with the rules? Worse than a ref who calls things wrong during practice and right during the actual matches is one who calls things wrong the whole event.
Let’s be entirely fair here. He didn’t come talk to you to scold you. He came to talk to you to help you. For some climbs, it was determined you weren’t being supported by the walls. For the one, you got very close to something everyone wants to see you succeed doing. But, you didn’t “make it obvious” you weren’t being supported by the wall.
It’s unrealistic to expect the HR to call a new drivers’ meeting each time something happens during the event. It’s also unrealistic to expect them to go through the rule book line by line to explain this to you.
To be entirely fair, they’re not required to come and point out to you why you weren’t given credit. They are within their rights to believe you’d use the question box if you want clarification.
The HR came up to you to tell you why you didn’t get those points as a courtesy. You’ll often find they do that because they want you to succeed and want to tell you what strange quirk held you up from reaching your potential. This isn’t done with ill intent.
You’re getting some pushback in this thread by a variety of people. This should be an indicator that in the interactions between you and this HR, it’s not the HR the community believes is acting poorly. Put yourself in the other shoes and consider why you’d reach out to a team. You’ll understand their thought process better and see they didn’t do this to harm you. They honestly were trying to help you get those points in your subsequent matches.