At a recent tournament, our team was told that before the match, controllers must be placed on the ground. I read the game manual, and I couldn’t find any rule supporting this. Am I allowed to begin a match holding my controller?
May be a local thing, our team start with controllers in hand.
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I’ve got to ask, what do you plan to do with your controller during the autonomous?
Is arguing with the head referee about a simple request that does not affect score or gameplay, but does tell the head referee that all teams are ready for the autonomous to start (which is the main reason that many had referees ask for this to happen), and ensures that all the rules will be followed regarding robot control during autonomous, really what you want your team to be known for?
The head referee enforced this rule on all matches including driving and alliance.
if this is IQ, which I am assuming by the tag, we do not have an auto period at the start of the match, so this does matter as you have to pick it up, seeing as we do not have a grace period, that would lose us time, IMO if this is IQ this is not legal to force teams to do, and it is legal to keep them in hand.
if this is not a VIQC post, - PSA to new forum users v2 - #7 by Blaziumm
-Blaziumm
It’s not a rule but it does prevent issues.
For VRC Autonomous
- It signals to the referee that a team is ready. If a team is having problems or making changes then the ref will not start the match. If the field display is green and all controllers are down, we are good to go.
- When teams are having an issue they will often unplug their controller thinking the issue is the field, this can get them into trouble.
- It shows the audience that the robots are driving autonomously - impressive!
Both VRC & IQ
- We also ask teams to set their controllers down at the end of the match and (VRC) to leave them plugged in. We don’t want a robot accidentally moving while scoring. Some students will fidget when waiting for the score and it becomes a problem if they move their robot. If something does move it is much easier for a team to defend their position if they are not touching the controller.
- Any challenges to the rules should be addressed with the head ref before disconnecting. It can be hard to evaluate the field if a robot has moved or if a student has entered the field.
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I never look at the tags…because they are so often wrong. I had assumed VRC when I answered, mainly because I was running a VRC tournament when I saw the question come up and that’s where my brain was.
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The question is for the beginning of an IQ match. I don’t see the reason for any student in VEX IQ or VRC to put the controller down before a driver period.
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For our city, we just hold the controller in our hands.
We do the same, but as said above, it can prevent starting before the timer and other issues. I’m assuming it’s not a big deal, but if you feel it’s not right you can always tell the ref. We were curious about scoring so we asked the head ref and they told us what we needed to do. So you can ask them about it if you really want to.
Thank you very much for the help!
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