Hi Karthik,
My team (1492 WASABI) had concerns about a specific ruling at the Western Washington Tournament that was held yesterday. As some background information, 1492A captained an alliance and lost Semifinal 2-1 due to a DQ (we completely agree with the DQ).
Semifinal 2-2 pertaining to most of my questions can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWIO2-DHg6U
Specific questions relating to the comments above them regarding the specific situations are bolded for your convenience.
Key points in the video:
-
From 0:43 to 0:51, the blue alliance shovel robot drives their shovel under the red alliance roller robot. While it is hard to see in the video, after conversing with the red alliance robot’s driver, he said that he was unable to escape the situation by driving backwards because he had no wheels touching the ground (best seen around 0:46-0:47 where the left side of the drivetrain is completely off the ground and the right side is leaning on the metal instead of the wheels). According to this previous Q&A https://vexforum.com/showthread.php?t=75931, specifically your second answer:
Would this be ruled as intentional entanglement thus leading to a DQ and disabling of the offending robot? -
From 1:55 to 1:59, the same blue alliance shovel robot drives their shovel into 1492A and first pushes them backwards onto their anti-tipping mechanism (the two standoffs out the back of the robot). At this point, 1492A has no wheels on the ground and is unable to escape from the situation.
**Would this be considered intentional tipping/entanglement if the blue shovel robot stays in this position but does not complete the tip?
** -
From 1:59 to 2:02, the blue alliance shovel robot continues pushing 1492A backwards until their anti-tip mechanism gives out and 1492A falls onto their back. This ended up completely wrecking 1492A’s lift system (broken gears and bent axles). This case of intentional tipping and the impending DQ was called by the referees, not immediately, but after the match was over.
However, our problem with all of this was that 1492A would have won the match even without the DQ call, but the intentional tipping of 1492A forced 1492A to rush to try and repair their robot for Semifinal 2-3. Even with their 3 minute timeout, they were unable to finish repairing the arm system in time. 1492A was forced to play their 2nd and 3rd teams in Semifinal 2-3 against the 1st and 2nd teams of the opposing alliance. As a result, 1492A’s alliance lost the match and the whole Semifinal.
Another thing to note is that 1492A asked the referees for more time to repair their robot (a few more minutes), but the head referee responded by paraphrasing a part of <G11> “However, VEX Sack Attack is an interactive game. Some incidental tipping, Entanglement, and damage may occur as a part of normal game play” and telling us that 1492A should have been built to withstand “minor interaction.” We understand that competitions must remain on time, but isn’t a few minutes waiting worth a fair semifinals match? Our question for this third key point:
Should extra time be given for repairs after permanent damage has been dealt to a robot after a case of intentional or egregious tipping, entanglement or other form of vigorous interaction?
More questions pertaining to multiple points in the video and also other clarifications:
**Would this case of tipping be called as both intentional AND egregious or only intentional?
Looking at points 1 and 2 in the video, should the offending blue robot have been disabled before the actual tip occurred (point 3)?
Since the referees allowed the blue robot to continue driving through the earlier offenses on team 1495 (point 1) and 1492A (point 2) eventually resulting in their DQ in point 3, should this be ruled as multiple offenses of entanglement/tipping and result in a DQ from the whole tournament?
In the case that a robot on an elimination alliance is disqualified from the entire tournament, does that disqualify the whole alliance as well in later elimination sets, since the alliance would not be able to field all three of their teams in a set of elimination matches?**
Apologies for the long Q&A and thanks as always Karthik!