Answered: Clarification on Blocking Shots & Expanding beyond climbing zone

[t.schmitt]

I’ll be serving as the head ref at our state championships in a couple of weeks and wanted to get clarification on how to handle a couple of common rule violations that I’ve seen throughout the season. I have a pretty good handle on the actual rule violations, but I’m hoping to get some guidance on how to enforce the rulings during the state tournament:

Violation 1: Blocking Shots while contacting shooting robot in loading zone
In a recent forum post, you explained that a “blocking robot” would be at fault and called for violating <SG7> if while they are blocking the shooting robot drives into them (while still making contact with their own loading zone):

@blatwell Here is where a potential issue may arise. If the robot that is blocking does not move and the other robot moves forward making contact with the blocking robot while still making contact with its own loading zone, who is at fault or is there any violation? Assume there is enough room for the robot in its loading zone to exit without touching the blocking robot.

The blocking Robot is at fault and could be called for a violation of <SG7>. The blocking Robot has chosen to take a position nearby the Loading Zone and is responsible for any contact which could occur in that spot. However, as always, referees are instructed to only issue warnings in non match affecting situations.

With that in mind, my first question is: if a blocking robot continually uses this strategy and the shooting robot continually drives forward to make contact (thus causing blocking robot to violate SG7), can I instruct the blocking robot to take position in such a manner that the shooting robot would have to leave the loading zone to make contact (essentially telling them to stay away far enough to not continually break SG7)? My rationale here is that 1 or 2 blocked shots while contact is being made may or may not be match affecting, but backing away and immediately re-engaging in this tactic repeatedly will most likely be match affecting.

Violation 2: Expanding beyond the climbing zone when getting ready to lift
We’ve seen this happen quite often this year and I want to be able to explain to teams exactly how it will be handled at the state event.

<SG3> says:

<SG3> A Robot may not expand beyond a volume of 18 inches wide by 18 inches long by 18 inches tall at any point during the Match, with the exception of the allowance listed in <SG10>. Minor violations of this rule that do not affect the match will result in a warning. Egregious (match affecting) offenses will result in a Disqualification. Teams that receive multiple warnings may also receive a Disqualification at the head referee’s discretion.

With that in mind, my second question is: if a robot expands outside of the climbing zone momentarily while deploying it’s lifting mechanism and then re-positions itself to fit in the square and later lifts an opponent, can we negate that lift during scoring? I understand that if the lift was match affecting, the violating robot would be DQ’d. In that scenario, the “lifted” robot would still receive a win and the opposing alliance would still receive a loss. It seems that the fairest way to call this offense would be to negate the lift.

Thanks, in advance! I really appreciate all the time and effort you put into making VEX robotics a great experience for students.

[Karthik]

@t.schmitt

With that in mind, my first question is: if a blocking robot continually uses this strategy and the shooting robot continually drives forward to make contact (thus causing blocking robot to violate SG7), can I instruct the blocking robot to take position in such a manner that the shooting robot would have to leave the loading zone to make contact (essentially telling them to stay away far enough to not continually break SG7)?

You can suggest to the team that they back away, but you cannot tell them to. There is no rule preventing them from occupying that spot.

@t.schmitt

With that in mind, my second question is: if a robot expands outside of the climbing zone momentarily while deploying it’s lifting mechanism and then re-positions itself to fit in the square and later lifts an opponent, can we negate that lift during scoring?

No, there is no rule that allows you to negate a lift.

Yes, as per <SG10>, any Alliance with a Robot that has expanded illegally would not be eligible for Elevation Points.