I started blue side at 3 comps, but then at states we were told we couldn’t start blue side, due to the Q&A. I read through the entire Q&A and found nothing. Anyone have any legitimate clarification?
Relevant Manual Info:
At the beginning of each Robot Skills Match, the Robot must be placed such that it is:
Touching an Alliance Starting Tile. Teams may elect to start in either color Alliance Starting Tile. However, Drive Team Members must remain in the Alliance Station that corresponds to the Alliance Starting Tile in which their Robot started the Match.
As @TeamTX stated, here is the rule from the Robot Skills Manual that states that teams may choose which side they want.
RSC1 At the beginning of each Robot Skills Match, the Robot must be placed such that it is:
Touching an Alliance Starting Tile. Teams may elect to start in either color Alliance Starting Tile. However, Drive Team Members must remain in the Alliance Station that corresponds to the Alliance Starting Tile in which their Robot started the Match
My team also ran into this at a state competition. You’d think that this would have come up before states for anybody who is reffing at a state meet. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Yes, it’s legal, but in my experience, it’s a great way to annoy the skills ref.
Having reffed skills, it’s a real pain to score everything for the opposite color just for one team to use it (and usually forget to reset the field after they’re done). If you want to start on the blue tiles, then you should bring an extra team member to help flip the field and reset when you’re done. It’s generally a good idea to keep the refs happy
Skills is always starts all objects as blue and is scored for red, regardless of the color the team starts on, so the refs shouldn’t have anything different to do other than possibly walking to the other side of the field.
