I’m going to be refereeing at an event Saturday (11/19) Do you have any tips for me? Rules to watch out for (aside from SG6a), strange edge cases? Anything that I might’ve learned from the referee training videos?
If you have not,
Participate in Referee training calls.
Read the referee documents on roboticseducation.org under the Volunteer tab… They have advice on the game there.
always have a version of the VRC Hub app, its got a version of the rules, and helpful scoring stuff, along with timing things, if your displays break
G6 was broken a few times at our competition. As in people would place their robots on the field and then take them and place them in the other starting square.
People also went out of their driver zone every now and then.
Be prepared to score stars in weird scenarios. I had to pick apart some strange occurrences, like when there were two stars, each touching a low-scoring zone for each team, and then three stars one on top of the other… Those three stars did not count, since they were supported by stars in opposing zones. I believe my interpretation was correct. Know the definition of “scored” inside and out.
Also, make sure you don’t mix red and blue alliance scores. That is very easy to do this year. When you look at the score sheet and see “red high scoring zone,” you may look for red tiles subconsciously. It’s actually on the blue side of the field. That was really trippy.
There were also a few that looked like they were touching the near zone, but were actually being supported by the fence and neutral zone and had only little more than a paper thickness between them and the near zone mat.
We just had an event this past Saturday. Here are some observations.
- Some teams tried using tape as “decoration” on forks that was really to keep standoffs from unscrewing.
- As mentioned earlier, it is easy for the refs to get the scores backwards
- Watch for driver loaded cubes being introduced early. We had that at least twice. At that point, you need to really try to keep track of that particular cube as it will count for 4 points for the opposing alliance no matter where it ends up.
I’ve deleted one message from this thread for trolling. Repeated offenses like this will result in accounts being banned.
@Karthik thanks for keeping the forums clean of stuff like that
You’re welcome!
One important thing is to always have a good sense of humor. Sometimes people forget how important a good smile can be. These competitions are competitive, but they should not be so competitive that people forget how to smile. I think @g_sawchuk would agree. Others may not.
At the drivers’ meeting for our tournament last week we said that we will be following the rules specified in the game manual and we addressed the following which were frequent offenses at previous events:
Placing the Cube - Teams should not impart energy when placing the cube (no tossing or “oops, it slipped” motions), only use the closest starting tile, a robot must be touching the starting tile if cube is placed on the robot, and you can’t touch the cube again once you let it go. We will pull the cube if it is improperly placed.
Stars - Preload is required and must be touching the robot and cannot be touching any grey tile. Stars under the fence do not count unless they are touching the grey tiles in a zone. The white line near the fence is not included in the near zone.
Defense - We expect robots to interact with each other over and under the fence but we will be watching for intentional grabbing, snagging, or pushing over an opposing robot.
Be Prepared - Have your robot, batteries, and controller ready to go. Place your robot, connect to the field, and turn everything on first. Then place the preload and adjust the robot immediately following. Don’t hold up the match because you forgot something.
Good luck and as @blatwell said, have fun and be nice.
I like this because a lot of kids get overly competitive, Vex is supposed to be fun!
Absolutely well said!
pats on back
Based on Karthik’s answer here, it would seem as though pulling the cube is not the appropriate action.
Karthik states “If a Cube is entered illegally as per <SG4>, the Cube will be automatically scored for the opposing Alliance in the Far Zone. So option ‘a’ is correct; the Blue Alliance will receive 4 points for the given Cube. Referees will do their best job to track illegally introduced Cubes, but as you mentioned, this may be difficult in some Matches. Referees are asked to use their best judgement in determining which Cube was the one that was introduced illegally.” Emphasis added.
I wish we could just pull the cube. That would make more sense and be much easier, but Karthik said…
I will be head ref at this tournament and I can help you with any questions you might have. See you Saturday
How is pulling the cube not the better option? We set it back in the original spot outside of the field and it awards the other team their 4 points.
Well it is a disadvantage for the team as an obstacle on the field to them and they might also confuse themselves and put effort into moving it around instead of other scoring opportunities.
It’s a very valid question. We don’t like asking referees to reach into the field during a Match when there could be moving Robots in the vicinity. You’re right in that it is easier to keep track of, however the potential safety issue, especially when the Cube isn’t right by the field perimeter, is not something we want to put referees through.
Those are valid points. I will mention it to my referees tonight.