Are vertical license plates legal; do they have to be strictly horizontal in placement?
To my knowledge as long as the license plates are clearly visible it is considered legal.
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They are legal but its preffered to have them horizontal
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As a side note you should color the rear of the inner most license plate black to avoid confusion when you always keep one plate permanently mounted to the robot. Additionally if you want to quick swap license plates vex iq pins work well instead of using a screw.
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I like to have the license plates lying face - up, that way it is very easy to see who is who, and there is no confusion with “wrong sides” in layered plates.
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Except, this has been ruled as not meeting the criteria of “Opposing sides” of the robot. I am assuming in your example both license plates are on top of the robot facing “upwards” in your description. Easiest example, one plate is mounted on the front bumper and one on the back bumper (assuming no intake 
) or one on left side and one on right side of robot. Teams have been creative with license plate positioning - some move with the robot’s intake mechanism.
End of the day, the license plate must be plainly visible to the referee and of the same color as the alliance. Teams are responsible for assuring that the wrong color does not appear because their license plate fell off (this happens a lot, team should get warnings and told to fix it.)
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That was my plan, although I know I wasn’t the recipient in your response.
So although they are vertical, as long as they oppose one another, I’m fine. OK! Thank you.
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You may have misunderstood the manual.
As stated in the Game Manual at <R10.a>, “two (2) horizontally opposing sides” means the side of the robot at which the license plate is placed. This does not refer to the placement direction.
Anything is legal if it isn’t limited in the Game Manual (including <G3>'s common sense).
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who misunderstood?
I brought up a specific Q&A from under over about two plates facing upwards on same plane - this was deemed illegal. Not what I would have considered under common sense as it was clearly visible …
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No, I did not misunderstand. My concern was over whether or not they could be placed vertically (on opposing sides), instead of just vertically…I have not seen any information prior on whether or not it’s legal.
If there is no information about it (in this case, placing license plates vertically or diagonally), then it is legal.
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Additionally, Q and A from previous seasons do not apply to the current season unless explicitly stated. As a head ref, I would never stop a team from passing inspection based on the Q and A of a previous season. However, this year’s game manual explicitly says that the top of a robot does not count as a side. I would try to refrain from citing previous seasons Q and A’s.
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we know that well … that said guidance from last season was more explicit than I expected. Feel free to post Q&A for this season
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