Answered: Breaking your opponents starting tile in Auton does not get penalized?

Hello Karthik,

I have a question involving rules <SG9> and <SG12>

At a competition we attended recently we had a few matches that involved robots in autonomous mode running into our starting tiles.

In <SG9> it states that it is illegal for an opposing robot to “Contact an opponents Alliance Starting tile…”, “Contact an opponents robot that is contacting the foam field tiles mentioned in c)…”, “deposit scoring objects in/on the opponent’s foam field tiles mentioned in c)”

The opposing robot in this match ran into our alliances starting tile. It hit our alliance’s robot and pushed multiple cubes into our protected tiles. When we asked the referees about it after the match, we were directed to rule <SG12>.

<SG12> “Any fouls committed during the Autonomous Period that do not affect the final outcome of the
match, but do affect the outcome of the Autonomous Bonus, will result in the Autonomous Bonus being
automatically awarded to the opposing Alliance.”

Does this mean that there is no penitently for breaking <SG9> in autonomous mode? Our opponents were not issued any penalty and to my knowledge, they were not issued a warning.

This caused us multiple issues later on because we had multiple cubes in our way while trying to score the skyise.

This brings me to my next question. How do you judge if something is match effecting or not. It directly affected our ability to score sky rise pieces with the added obstacle.

In anther case at the same tournament, the same thing happened and they lost because the opponent entered their protected tiles during autonomous and then repeatedly entered the protected area. The referee ruled that it wasn’t match affecting.

The penalty for violating <SG9> during autonomous mode can be:

  1. A warning for offenses that do not effect the outcome of the match or the outcome of the Autonomous Bonus
  2. The Autonomous Bonus being automatically awarded to the non-offending alliance for fouls that do not affect the final outcome of the match, but do affect the outcome of the Autonomous Bonus.
  3. A disqualification for fouls that affect the final outcome of the match.

The referees make this determination based on the impact of the foul and seeing how it inhibited the affected alliance.

Thank you for your time Karthik!

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You’re welcome!

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