Our team qualifies for worlds for the first time this year due to an EI award. We were just wondering if we had to bag and tag our robot after our current regional, or if we could continue to work on it before champs. Thank you 
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You do need to bag and tag.
Additionally, start looking into crating and shipping requirements for worlds!
You have to bag and tag.
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Yes, sadly
@Shelby_Lamp @GtheMan3044
Does this mean that teams who sign up for the waitlist for worlds also need to bag their robot? Because otherwise that wouldn’t really be fair?
Definitely.
Ok thank you
You’re very welcome
When in doubt, bag at the end of what you think might be your last event. Worst case scenario you find out you aren’t qualified for your district champs or worlds and you then unbag and do whatever you’d like to do with the robot. Best case, you qualify and can go without having to have a long discussion with the inspectors about your bag/tag compliance.
Teams that are certain they won’t go to worlds often change their mind when they find out they qualify or a sponsor steps up with a big donation to make the trip possible, or they find our their wait list has gotten bumped up to registered. So it’s always a good idea to bag at the end of the event and make a final decision later.
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So suppose, you don’t follow that bag and tag rules either by accident or on purpose. What do you guys think would happen?
The same thing that happens when you don’t bag before any other competition. You’d either get a VERY VERY stern talking too (if it was a mistake, gave no advantage and was quickly rectified), or you wouldn’t be able to compete
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Yea, that makes sense.
There is a robot lockup non-compliance form and process. Basically, you’d need to bring up the issue with the event inspection crew immediately and that starts a discussion about why your lockup history isn’t what it ought to be and what is and isn’t fair from a competition standpoint.
99% of non-compliance issues boil down to honest mistakes by teams that don’t net them any real competitive advantage and nothing of real consequence comes of it other then delaying unbag at the event. The outcome of the remaining %1 is really up to the LRI. I’d be curious to hear of any incidents that resulted in teams not being able to compete, though.
Unless you are on the take your robot to champs experiment, you are supposed to ship your robot immediately after your last event. You should have received shipping instructions at your qualifying event . As others have said, the bag rules are in effect until you are done with your season. If for some reason you failed to bag the robot, you should contact First and start the resolution before you get to Champs.
I have heard that when it happened before they allowed them to compete in practice matches but not during actual matches. I don’t know how accurate that is though.
I’ve never heard of anything along those lines, and I’ve heard of or seen some doozies. (Example: Robot in parking lot, at unload point 50 yards from a gaggle of inspectors, gets a bag pulled up and tied.)
I did manage to snag a rookie at the local event before they got out the door–they’d just gotten RAS and I convinced them that bagging and tagging was kind of important for Houston. Makes the paperwork easier if nothing else, and if they don’t make it they can unbag right quick.
I’d love to hear the team’s explanation for that.
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In the past, yes…this year, we got an email saying that we will get shipping instructions by email, after we pay the registration fee (which is due Wednesday)
At worlds? Probably nothing. Be sure to bag in case they do it again or an inspector sees you opening your crate, but bag checks haven’t been done at Worlds in a while. There’s nothing official out yet and I half expect a curve ball given that this is the last year of bag day, but you will likely be able to unbag as soon as you open your crate.
Things might change with bag checks in Detroit this year with FIRST experimenting with letting a few team bring their robots instead of shipping them.
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