Answered: Referee Latitude in Determining Winner of Match

[nnolte]

Hello GDC,

I serve as team mentor and advisor as well as an event partner for several events, including regional tournaments, leagues, and state championships.

We had an interesting end of match situation at a recent league night that I wanted to ask about.

At the end of a qualification match, a blue alliance robot was playing defense against a red alliance robot attempting to score a stack of cones in the 5 point zone. Due to the interaction, several things happened at the buzzer. As the red alliance robot was scoring the stack of cones in the 5 point zone, the blue alliance robot lost balance and tipped over, causing a significant number of cones to come off the scored stack as well as end up in the position as shown in the picture, effectively descoring a number of cones on the tall goal. The descoring actions of the blue robot definitely were match affecting (blue “won” the match by about 10 points) and the robot in question was DQ’d from the match.

An explanation of a very similar situation was given in this answered question: Answered: DQ in Qualifying Match? - VRC > In The Zone (17/18) - VEX Forum and part of the answer included this response:

it is not reasonable to ask a referee to manually extrapolate a hypothetical match score beyond winning/losing, and it is not fair to penalize an innocent team for the illegal actions of their randomly assigned partner.

Additionally, per <G9>:

Scores will be calculated for all Matches immediately after the Match once all objects and
Robots on the field come to rest. The determination of the Autonomous Bonus will occur for all
Matches immediately after the Autonomous Period after all objects and Robots on the field come
to rest.

Due to this, it seemed clear to us that we were not allowed to give the win to the red alliance, despite the fact that they clearly should have won. As a result, the red alliance robots earned a loss on their record and the non-offending blue alliance partner ended up gaining a win in a match that they would have lost if not for the illegal actions of their alliance partner.

My question is, do the referees have any latitude in determining who wins or loses a match beyond what the final resting place of all game objects and robots are at the end of the match, especially if it is clear that the disqualifying action is what changed the score of the match?

Thank you for your work in creating a fun, exciting and challenging game this season and your tireless efforts to help ensure a fair and even playing field for all competitors!

[VEX_GDC]

do the referees have any latitude in determining who wins or loses a match beyond what the final resting place of all game objects and robots are at the end of the match, especially if it is clear that the disqualifying action is what changed the score of the match?

No. The Q&A post that you referenced goes into some of the rationale behind this. The way that it was handled at your event (red alliance gets a loss, non-offending blue alliance partner gets a win) is the correct way to handle this situation, according to rules of VRC In the Zone.

Thank you for your work in creating a fun, exciting and challenging game this season and your tireless efforts to help ensure a fair and even playing field for all competitors!

You’re welcome!