I recently attended a competition where during one of the matches, a Skyrise was broken in half due to what appeared to be a manufacturing defect (It wasn’t glued properly). There was a bit of confusion as to what to do and how to score it afterwards, prompting the following questions.
If a robot does something illegal that drastically changes the score of the match, even if the offender is DQ’ed, what happens to the other robots and the score? If it was accidental/a field defect, would it be scored how it was before the damage occurred, would it be scored with the damage, or would a replay of the match be necessary? If the outcome of the match was changed, scoring as is obviously would not be fair to the team who played fair and was ahead but lost due to the illegal action.
For clarification, say the Red alliance is composed of robots A and B, and the Blue is robots C and D. The Red alliance has built a full Skyrise and is ahead by a significant margin. Robot C (Blue) drives over and tears down the Skyrise (whether accidental or not, obviously illegal) and swings the match in blue’s favor. Robot C is going to be Disqualified, but robot D gets a free win because of robot C’s illegal maneuver and Robots A and B lose due to no fault of their own.
I don’t think anyone would stoop to this level, but if Robot C and D were friends/from the same organization, scoring with the damage could allow robot C to sacrifice their rank in order to ensure robot D’s victory.
I know these are highly unlikely scenarios, but with such tall robots this year, serious field damage can be an unfortunate reality.
Let’s answer the simple portion of the question first. Rule <SG7> specifically deals with Scoring Objects that have been split into multiple pieces.
Thus, the Skyrise Sections that have been broken in half can no longer be part of a Skyrise.
Let’s take a look at the definition of Disqualification.
Thus in a qualification match, if the Red Alliance consists of Robots A & B, and Robot A is disqualified, Robot B is not punished for the actions of their partner. In a elimination match, if Robot A is disqualified, the entire alliance is disqualified and they receive an automatic loss.
In the case of an unpreventable field defect, the Event Partner or Head Referee may call for the affected match to be replayed, as per <G15>. If a Robot causes the field defect, they would be disqualified as per <S1>.
This is correct if the match was a qualification match. The rules do not automatically punish a team’s alliance partner in the case of a disqualification. However, teams should always be aware of <G17> which deals with disrespectful and unprofessional behaviour.
This rule is rarely invoked, and would only be invoked for the most extreme circumstances.
