Okay, so I’m staying anon for the purpose of privacy, but I’m a team from Singapore and I just wanted to clarify the rules with the judges who may be reading this article.
For privacy issues, I will keep their names anonymous. During Singapore Vex Robotics Championships, there was a 3rd/4th place match that involved two teams, Red alliance with a push bot and tray bot and the Blue alliance, with 2 DR4B cube stackers.
At mid point of the match, the push bot from red rammed into a DR4B from blue and got a countdown from a side judge. Note: A SIDE JUDGE. The head judge for the match had his role taken over by a judge uninvolved in the welfare of the match. Firstly, to the judges if y’all are reading, please DON’T talk when one judge is already talking, as it really is match affecting and the drivers and coaches don’t know who to listen to.
Second instance, when the judges countdown during a pin, they count WAY too fast. The countdown is 5 seconds, and they were counting twice as fast, and in that match, red was ruled out for trapping for only 2.5seconds. It was utterly unfair! They were also given a DQ afterwards. Furthermore, it was a 3rd/4th place match, just to reemphasise the importance of it.
Next, they don’t even… Don’t even know what pinning is. Now yes you read that right, red, during the match was called out for “pinning”, when blue could clearly escape! In my eyes, it clearly shows a lack of knowledge about the game and when the rule of pinning should be followed. Not just that, his colleague, a female judge(who also was not involved in the overseeing of the game), also told them off, I quote “WHEN WE SAY PINNING, IT’S PINNING!”, when red said the truth that “they can escape!”. Not only does that show unprofessionalism by shouting, it also reflects badly upon the judges’ willingness to listen to both sides of the story during the judging of a match. It does not do justice to the people who lost unfairly.
Lastly, read your rules. Notably, some teams do not know the rules, but that does not apply for the rest of us. In fact, sometimes, the judges claim that they are “thoroughly trained” when sometimes, they give an unfair advantage over those who seemingly “broke” the rules. For example, to call out a pin, make sure that 1) the pinned robot is unable to escape and 2) the robot carrying out the pinning is not backing off. Then when you countdown countdown in a manner that is loud and fair, 1 second per count please. This way, it gives the game not only a more professional and sophisticated vibe, but is also fairly ruled out by the judges, like the judges at world’s.
Those were just my thoughts and I really hope that you can just do us this favour so the match is constantly kg fair. Next upcoming competition in Singapore is probably Vex Nationals. Cheers