So <G6> says people can’t switch teams and serve on 2 drive teams in one season, but someone on my team wants to see this officially said on the forums, so can someone switch teams from, say, 2158I to 2158Q (I’m using those letters because thy arent real teams), and still be eligible to drive on Q if they were a driver for I?
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If you were a drive team member for team 2158I, or any other team for that matter, you are not allowed to be a drive team member for any other team for the rest of that season.
You cannot legally switch driveteam members between teams.
Also, for future reference, nothing on the forum is official. If it says its illegal in the game manual, its illegal.
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Simply put, No.
They can help the team in many other ways, but not be on the drive team unless approved by the RECF. There are cases, illness, that could warrant a waiver.
The Q&A is shut down, so the rules stand as written.
I would follow up with your RECF Regional Support Manager this close to Worlds.
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Not quite - there are situations where a waiver may be needed, as in with VEX IQ. At this stage, RECF would need to be part of the decision process, it is their event.
To follow up on what @lacsap said, two other situations where someone could be a drive team member for two teams in the same season (after permanently changing teams) are (1) if that student changes schools, or (2) if there are conflicts within a team.
I seem to remember quoting this rule somewhere before (maybe in a Discord message, private or in a Florida VEX server), and I will post it here once i find it.
Edit:
Now that the Q&A is viewable again, here is the full ruling I mentioned earlier:
As always, this rule should be read with G2 in mind, and the spirit of the answer that was given in VIQC applies to VRC as well. The intent of G6 is to not allow the same Student driver to operate / compete with multiple Robots across multiple Teams simultaneously. If a Student permanently changes Teams for reasons including (but not limited to) illness, changing schools, or conflicts within a Team, then that Student may drive the new Team’s Robot, regardless of whether or not the Student drove the previous Team’s Robot.
Conversely, a Student driver who is still associated with another Team may not fill in as a “substitute” driver for a single day. VRC does not require more than one Student for any given Match, like VIQC does, so “substitute” drivers should never be necessary.
Also, 2775H asked in the Q&A 6 days ago about whether people could switch drive teams for Worlds, so I expect your question to be answered once and for all pretty soon.
(I’m hoping for this to be allowed, especially for teams that won’t even have 3 members at Worlds.)
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Question - How does this get policed throughout the season? We are independent and only have one team so it really doesn’t apply to us, but are we supposed to remember from competition to competition who we drive with? Is someone tracking this, or (and I’m guessing this is it…) its an honor system thing? Has anyone called out another team for switching drive members between events during the season?
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all of the above.
We had drive swap at an event. Not something you want to deal with - it was flagged by other teams, queueing crew, and the referee. I think the organization was unclear about the rules with regards to drive team members.
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So this was at an event? If so I could see that, as everyone would see changes from match to match. I was more thinking from an event in say… November, to one in January.
You get to know teams really well in your region.
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In our area (San Diego) we take pictures of the drive team after inspection at each event
At BCIT(which really doesn’t matter that much) There was a driver from my school who drove on 2 teams and didn’t get caught until the playoffs.
BCIT (Pacific Northwest Championships) is officially categorized as a “scrimmage”, as opposed to a tournament and occurred after World Qualifying was complete.
Teams that were progressing to Worlds retained their original drive teams, while other teams were free to experiment with some new combinations. Nothing to lose, since their season was over.
I was actually playing with the idea of running “Best 2/3” matches for the elimination rounds, too… but maybe next year.
Jason
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I think the purpose of not allowing drive team members to switch teams is to avoid the situation where one set of drivers is used to qualify multiple teams to worlds (this could happen in areas where some teams qualify through skills scores due to double quals). And I think it is a good rule. However, by the time Worlds rolls around, the rule is unecessary. So I think they should allow teams to use any driver they want at Worlds regardless of whether they drove for another team during the season.
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I disagree. Worlds is when this rules most applies. It prevents large programs from putting together a cherry picked team from individuals on teams who may not have earned a spot. You should compete at worlds with the team you qualified to worlds with.
Good point.
20 characters. I am not a robot… or am I?
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Good point.
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The argument of driving with the team you have qualified with is a good one, but many teams will send their best, if only to act as a pit crew and/or scouting. This helps to emphasize teamwork within an organization, for one.
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And there is nothing wrong with having additional support. This is how teams should support each other not only at worlds but the entire season. The rules only state who may drive.
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I disagree with the RECF having that much say in how I dictate who drives and how I compose my team.
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