Hello!
My team has been debating about whether it is allowed in the rules obstruct the launcher of the other team robot.
Specific:
During a match in the international competition in Durango, Mexico, our robot will be damaged the mechanism by which launched balls, so we opted to play in a defenssive strategy, the opposing robot had a double flywheel launcher but at low altitude, so if our robot standing in front without touching the other robot, the balls bouncing off our robot did not score (balls that the opposing team launched), the other team members complained and the referee asked us ward off the robot path throw the opposing team to allow them to score points, so we are confused about it because our robot didn’t touch the other robot.
If you were not directly interacting with the opposing teams robot, and you were not in their loading zone, you should have been ok.
However, there are rules that state that pinning and trapping are illegal, which an offensive game could have caused the referee to have ruled against you?
The rules also state that:
There is a forum post, though, about teams that are trying to create defensive robots!
https://vexforum.com/t/ultimate-defense-the-fan-bot/31032/1
So, defensive robots are definitely legal.
We did the same thing in an early compatition this year. It is illegal to touch the the opposing robot if it is touching the corner tiles (i.e. the loading zone), but you can still block them if you don’t touch them. To get an official response you could ask karthic on the Official Nothing But Net Q&A.
If you are defending a team like that (a couple centimeters away from them while they are in their loading zone) and they drive forward and come into contact with you, would you be disqualified because you are touching them while they are in their loading zone or would nothing happen as their action is aimed at disqualifying you. I would ask this in the Q&A, but I am pretty sure it has already been asked.
SG13 covers this:
It would probably be a really tough call though, since we’re talking about a few centimeters, and you need to be really close to see what actually happened.
If you are in the field, then there is no issue with you blocking the balls. If they are contacting their loading zone, then you can sit in front of them and block, just don’t touch them. But if you do, they will just ask you to move.
We had an issue with the rules at our last tournament where they would not let us in the opposing alliance colored squares at any time, outside of the loading zone tape, not just the last 30 secs, to block. We got with the tournament sponsor and had it explained to the refs that we are allowed in the opposing alliance colored tiles until the last 30 secs.
First thought should be to search for a Q&A on this topic. Works 95% of the time, including this time–there’s a post that answers this question exactly. I simply Googled “site:vexforum.com block balls in air”
You can show the refs the link if you’re called out at future tournaments.
Thank you so much for your responses! When I played deffensive I didnt touch the other robot, so its completly legal 