Match Replay Ruling? Is it fair?

During our Arizona middle school state championship match(2023) a scorekeeping referee tripped over the endgame string of our opponents. This caused our opponents to gain more points with their endgame. Before the referee tripped over our opponents endgame the match was in our favor 81-73. After the referee tripped over the endgame the match was still in our favor 81-79. This match was the 4th qualifying match in the elimination round. The referee that tripped over the endgame string was a scorekeeping referee NOT a head referee. Even though we were still ahead the head referee called for a replay of the match even though it was still in our favor. Is this fair and legal? If not what rule would it fall under?

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First, I am sorry you have a sour experience. The Head Referee’s decision are final under T1.

All hypotheticals as I was not there.

That said T7 is clear:

Match replays are allowed, but rare. A Match replay, where a Match is played over again from its start, must be agreed upon by both the Event Partner and Head Referee, and will only be issued in the most extreme circumstances.

Both the Event Partner and Head Referee must agree on a match replay. Did the Event Partner agree to the replay? If not, you could have requested to keep the score as was as the examples cited in the rules concern reasons for replay be Match Affecting.

Can’t time travel. However, you are well within your rights to bring Game Manual to the drive station (printed please) and show the rules. Read T3 carefully about appealing a referee’s ruling. The rule gives wise advice on conflict resolution.

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Hello! This is Nathan, I was one the Head Referees at the event who was involved in making this ruling. I can provide more context as to why the match was replayed in addition to the explanation I gave at the event.

The first thing to clarify is we do not know what the state of the field was prior to the trip, and by extension, the score. The trip that pulled on a couple of strings occurred right after the match ended and before string markers were placed in that area of the field.

It was suggested by some students that we review video footage of what the field looked like prior to the trip to determine where the string was. Unfortunately, T3a does not permit this.

T3a: Head Referees may not review any photo or video Match recordings when determining a score or ruling

While I do not want to go too far down the video replay rabbit hole, the livestream video may paint a different picture of what is actually scored vs reality. String can often be hovering a few millimeters above the field, vs on camera it looks like it is touching. The static camera angle may also make it appear the string is touching a tile, but when looking at it from a different angle, it becomes clear it is not. I can think of instances when watching NFL games when you think “oh look, totally not a touchdown!” when watching a video replay but then you see the same instance from two other camera angles and it becomes clear it actually was. The in-person referees ultimately have the best perspective as they are right next to the field and can move around as needed to determine what is scored.

After the trip occurred, we scored the match in its current post-trip state. The score was very close, enough that adding or removing a couple of covered tiles would have changed the outcome of the match. In terms of rule precedent for why we replayed the match, that is rule T7, more specifically T7ciii:

Match replays are allowed, but rare. A Match replay, where a Match is played over again from its
start, must be agreed upon by both the Event Partner and Head Referee, and will only be issued in the most extreme circumstances. Some examples that may warrant a Match replay are as follows:

T7ciii: The field is reset before a score is determined.

Since the field was partially reset, we had no way to determine the “true” state of the field prior to the trip, and the movement of the string could have easily changed the outcome of the match, the determination was made to replay the match as we could not confidently say who would have won had the trip not occurred.

I want to apologize again this happened. It was a difficult situation that should not have happened at any event, let alone the state championship. In the future, we plan to give detailed training to scorekeeper referees on how to navigate around string to ensure this does not happen ever again.

As stated in the team meeting, I am more than happy to answer any questions you may have at the event. As Pascal mentioned, you are more than in the right to appeal the decision at the event. We want to ensure we listen to your input and provide a clear explanation as to why the decision was made.

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The event partner did not agree to the replay. Thanks for helping… Just trying to understand in the future.

Hello,

I was there as the emcee (so not a decision maker but a close observer).

As Nathan said, there was no "pre-trip score "or anything like that. The mistake occurred almost immediately after the match ended and before most of the covered tiles could be assessed. Moreover, it would be impossible to tell what tiles were covered from the livestream even if that were allowed. The score was taken as the field appeared after the trip just to establish a baseline of “how close is this match”? If the score was 120-80, it would be pretty clear that a replay is not warranted. As it was scored, it was exceedingly closer.

I would invite you to put yourselves in the decisionmakers’ shoes. How can you say “this team moves on and this team is eliminated based on a tainted and very close score”? That would not maintain the competitive integrity of the event, in my opinion. In an ideal world, of course, this issue would not have happened in the first place and that is entirely regrettable, but the only hand that can be played is the one that has been dealt.

Additionally, the head referees did speak to both alliances and from what I could tell from body language and expressions, neither alliance took any issue with this replay at the time that it was announced to them. I understand better than anyone the temptation to say “what if,” but if there were any issues they could (and should) have been brought up at that time.

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Our team completely understands that the ruling was fair we are just trying to figure out if in the future it was possible to appeal the ruling or take any other action.

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I strongly believe that events should be more willing to do replays. So I applaud this event for trying to maintain the integrity of the competition and doing a replay.

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Hello, I was on the opposing team during this quarter finals match. I would like to point out that the opposing alliance did a 6 second, arguably 7 second, pin on us in the first game which prevented us from scoring 2 disks in the high goal. These disks would have won us the game, which could be a match effecting pin. I am not saying this as dislike towards the other alliance, but just as a reminder that the string was not the only major thing in this match.

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