Answered: Can Scoring Objects on the Other Side of the Fence Be Defended?

[Owen]

This is another follow up <SG6a> trapping question, but I’ll frame it as a practical application rather than the theoretical rules question. However, I will include all the background so that you can see where I’m coming from. Relevant Q&A links:
https://vexforum.com/t/competition-port/16864/1
https://vexforum.com/t/baud-rate/16881/1
https://vexforum.com/t/world-championship-party-celebration/17119/1
https://vexforum.com/t/answered-sg6a-trapping/36221/1
https://vexforum.com/t/answered-clarification-sg6a-trapping-touching-the-field-perimeter/36469/1
https://vexforum.com/t/answered-sg6a-with-diagrams/36472/1
https://vexforum.com/t/new-cortex-micro-controller/17215/1
https://vexforum.com/t/kiwi-world-champs-on-nz-national-television/17226/1
https://vexforum.com/t/answered-sg6a-crossing-the-fence-necessarilly-corners-the-opposing-robots/36608/1

Let’s first try to summarize what trapping is. In this thread, you first defined what trapping is in Starstruck:

@Owen Do definitions of pinning, grabbing, and trapping carry over from previous seasons?

For the most part, yes. However for trapping, there is specifically no distance requirement listed. If a Robot is trapped (i.e. boxed off into a confined space) by an opposing Robot who has crossed the Fence, this would be illegal.

I asked for more clarification here:

@Owen Since there is no distance requirement listed for trapping, is it safe to assume that walling off 1 tile on the opponent’s side of the fence would be “trapping” them in the remaining 17 tiles? Under my current interpretation this is illegal. If this is not trapping, please give a little more insight into where the line is drawn.

A Robot deploying a wall across the Fence that completely cuts off a Robot from a section of the field is illegal. A Robot deploying a wall that traps a Robot into a section of the field that they cannot escape from is illegal.

Although you did not explicitly answer my question, the answer seemed to suggest that this would be illegal. The only way it could be legal is if your definition of “section of the field” is different from mine. This is what I was trying to address here, but you decided not to answer it.

Highwayman very clearly laid out the problem with these rulings here. Sticking an arm over the fence MUST be trapping, according to our interpretation, so long as the following conditions hold:

1. The arm is low enough that the opponent is unable to drive where it is.
2. The opponent is actively attempting to move where the arm is.
   If both of these are true, then it should be illegal, since in your own words, “A Robot deploying a wall across the Fence that completely cuts off a Robot from a section of the field is illegal.” An arm can do the same thing as a wall, and there exists no meaningful difference between the two (you confirmed this here).

Yet, your answer to the most recent question was this:

@Highwayman At what point does crossing the fence become illegally trapping your opponent?
Simply sticking an arm over the Fence is not Trapping and is not a violation of <SG6>. What is a violation is to use this arm to keep the opposing in a confined space. The point that crossing the fence becomes illegally trapping is when an opposing Robot is essentially “cornered” and stuck in a section of the field.

This answer seems contradictory, since you use the words “confined” and “cornered” to define trapping, although there is no distance requirement listed, and here you seemed to suggest that walling off a single tile to “confine” the opponent to the remaining 17 tiles of their side of the fence would be illegal. But in this thread, you confirm that pushing an opposing robot is legal. It is impossible to push without preventing access to some portion of the field for a limited time. These recent answers seem to suggest that there is in fact SOME distance requirement, you just won’t say what it is.

THIS IS THE ACTUAL QUESTION

Is it possible to block opponent access to scoring objects on their side of the fence without trapping them? This would be preventing access to a section of the field, which should make it illegal, but other ways of preventing access to a section of the field have been ruled legal (pushing, reaching over). Here are three diagrams of a possible design.



Which, if any, of these are trapping? All of these are a robot reaching an arm over (which has been ruled legal, at least in certain cases). The only difference is the size of the arm. Assume the opposing robot is too tall to drive under the arm.

[Karthik]

Take a look at the following response for some guidance on your question.

https://vexforum.com/t/answered-sg6a-crossing-the-fence-necessarilly-corners-the-opposing-robots/36608/1