Hello guys. I’m not sure if this has been posted before, but our sister team has three people, and two of them may be late for a competition. Can two members of our team join them after our skills drive. I’m sorry for posting a repeated post but I need solid concrete proof to show my coach . Thanks a lot!
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I believe that it is allowed. But I would not recommend it. Because only one person is driving, then that one driver can only drive for 35 seconds, or right before the required driver switch. And, that one driver is not allowed to leave the driver’s box, so essentially making the maximum possible score 18.
See the rules below
G4 - a Team members may move from one Team to another for non-strategic reasons outside of the Team’s control.
i. Examples of permissible moves may include, but are not limited to, illness, changing schools, conflicts within a Team, or combining/splitting Teams.
and
c Loaders are an exception to this rule. If a Team only has two Students and is unable to field a three-Student Drive Team, they may choose from one of the following options:
i. For a given Match, they may substitute in a Student from their Alliance Partner’s Team as a temporary Loader. They may do this in as many Matches as needed.
ii. For a given event, they may substitute in a Student from another Team to be their Loader for the duration of the event. This Student may only serve as a Loader for one Team at a given event, and will effectively become a member of the new Team for that event.
iii. There is no requirement for a Drive Team to have a Loader; if desired, they can play the Match with only two Drivers, and rely on their Alliance Partner’s Loader.
I read this as:
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the driver can join the sister team and when the sister team driver show up, the sister team driver takes over.
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The loader that you loan to the sister team stays with the loader for the entire event.
My reasoning on this is the rule for the driver doesn’t say when or how members can switch. The rules for Loader are explicit about the Loader. Had the GDC wanted to control what happens to the driver at the level of the Loader they would have written it out. They didn’t in the recent rules, that does not mean at some point they won’t take pen to paper (or since this is 2025, fingers to keyboard).
BUT I’m not the decider, I’m just a person that spent the night at a Holiday Inn. The correct action is to post an EXACT example in the Q&A and get a ruling.
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