I know it is clearly stated that the robot is not allowed (intentionally or accidentally) to remove any cones from the opponent’s stack.
My question is this:
A red robot is sitting in the opponent’s 5-point zone to block the blue alliance.
The blue robot comes along with cones stacked on the mobile goal and crash onto the red robot. And cones are unstacked during the crash.
Since the red robot is not moving, but just sitting still in the blue’s 5-point zone, will the red robot be in violation of SG5?
Is it going to be almost like basketball ruling - whereby if the defender is standing still blocking the path to the basket, and the offensive player runs unto the defender, the call will be against the offensive player?
Think the ruling will make a big difference to how offensive and defensive plays are going to be evolved.
It is always difficult to provide a blanket ruling based off of a snapshot of a single interaction in a match.
That being said, there are no provisions in VRC that provide protection to a defensive robot who is acting passively rather than actively, like you are describing in basketball. <SG5> clearly states that any interaction which causes Cones to be removed from an opponent’s stack is a violation. Accidental or intentional, direct or indirect. In your example, the Cones would not have been removed if the defending robot had not been there; thus, it did directly contribute to their removal.
As stated in <SG5>, teams should exercise extreme caution when interacting with or around opponent Goals. By this logic, sitting in the 5 point zone, where you know that an opponent will likely bring a Mobile Goal with Cones stacked upon it, should be approached with the appropriate caution.