I ran into something yesterday, while serving as a head ref, that I’ve never encountered and wanted to get clarification as to what to do if it happens again.
We finished qualification matches before a scheduled lunch break and instructed teams that alliance selection would begin at 1:30pm (the pre-published time on our schedule & robot events agenda). At 1:30, we had all teams lined up with the exception of 3 teams from one school. All three were ranked in the top 10 (one of them as the 3rd seed). After announcing and calling for them several times, we realized the entire team left campus for lunch and had not returned. We stalled for about 10 minutes and the missing teams arrived and we were able to move forward. The other teams and the audience were getting a bit restless and the EP and I were in a no-win situation. Had the teams not been there by 1:45, I was prepared to start the selection process without them. My question is:
If this happens again, what would be the appropriate course of action. If we were to start selections without teams present, how shoud that be handled?