Answered: Hanging

[astephen68]

I have a question, if a team is trying to hang and are on the process of hanging? Is there a penalty for the opponents alliance going and pulling or hitting the attempting hanging team.

For example : Team 1 is attempting to hang and is above the ground, then the opponents alliance trying to play defense comes and rams the team off the ladder. Is that legal?

[Karthik]

@astephen68

I have a question, if a team is trying to hang and are on the process of hanging? Is there a penalty for the opponents alliance going and pulling or hitting the attempting hanging team.

When interacting with the opponent, teams must always be mindful of rules <G11> and <SG5> from Section 2 of the VEX Round Up Game Manual:

<G11> Strategies aimed solely at the destruction, damage, tipping over, or entanglement of robots are not in the spirit of the VEX Competition and are not allowed. However, VEX Round Up is an interactive game. Some incidental tipping, entanglement, and damage may occur as a part of normal game play. If the tipping, entanglement, or damage is ruled to be intentional, the offending team may be disqualified from that match. Repeated offenses could result in a team being disqualified from the remainder of the competition.

<SG5> VEX Round Up is a highly interactive game. Contact, ramming and tipping is especially likely to occur on the ladder as part of normal game play. Robots should be designed accordingly as these interactions on the ladder would not fall under <G11>. However, intentional entanglement is still not permitted on the ladder.

As such “hitting” would fall under the category of contact or ramming and is permitted as long as it is not destructive or damaging.

“Pulling” would be categorized as entanglement and is not permitted by both <G11> and <SG5>. It is never permissible for a VEX robot to intentionally grasp and attach to another robot.

@astephen68

For example : Team 1 is attempting to hang and is above the ground, then the opponents alliance trying to play defense comes and rams the team off the ladder. Is that legal?

It is hard to make a concrete ruling on a hypothetical situation without knowing the entire scenario. That being said, the action you describe sounds legal provided that it is not ruled to be intentionally damaging.

The intent of these rules is to provide teams with adequate protection from malicious and destructive strategies. However we do understand that the points for hanging are very large and that teams will want to defend against their opponents from achieving them. Pushing teams while in the process of hanging is legal, while repeated ramming may be judged to be a violation.