Referees reviewing match footage

[blatwell]

As an EP, mentor, and parent, I feel your pain and understand the reasoning behind the current rule. I am both fine with the rule remaining unchanged, and equally OK with, in a very limited way, at the discretion of the refs, allowing the refs to review video footage, especially in eliminations.

If the changes were to be made, it would only be in the EP had in-house video and should only be from the video from the EP. If it is not limited in that way, or something similar, we would end up with things taking way too long looking for a specific angle.

There is a life lesson at play and that is, life is not always fair. We should strive to be fair, but it does not always work out. We need to learn to deal with it and move on.

If it is something that can be done quickly, and the ref feels the need for help, I am totally for that, but I would not want to get into long delays looking at all sorts of angles any time someone did not like the way the call went.

By the way, after reviewing the video, I would still agree with the DQ. I could go into a long explanation as to why, but that is not what this thread is about.

[Tanveer_7133B]

@OscarMNOVA12

This implies the video quality standards are the same and consistent for every match at these tournaments, and that you have multiple camera views to get the best possible angle at an action. If you want to review something, a simple panned out view is not going to cut it. That requires a step up in equipment and technical work than is currently present. That infrastructure is not there.

With vex, we shouldn’t look for ESPN quality with multiple cameras for different angles. The simple panned view that is shown on stream would be good enough to make most of the calls because they would be able to scrutinize the footage for whatever they need by replaying it as much as they need to. All I would hope for out of this would be a rule change that would enable refs to make more fair rulings. It is a lot to ask for that complex of an infrastructure to be implemented, but even what is available right now would help referees greatly.

[Dromeda]

@Tanveer | 7133B

During the US Open, as I watched this match, I saw perfectly fine what happened here live, however the refs did not. In fact, in a later match we could see 2 of the refs on their phones not even paying attention to the match and if a scenario such as ours happened again it would be grossly unfair that a ruling would be against the team considering the refs did not pay attention.

I’ve been to a numerous local comps and I totally agree with some refs not necessarily paying full attention towards what is going on the field. Sometimes, I really do feel that some students that have done vex for 2-3 years can manage the role with higher accuracy and be more determined as they understand just how much you matter in the case of match.

[Foster]

Interesting concept and I’ve done close to that. I had a parent who was always all over the refs. I told them they could not come to the next event unless the parent was the ref. Got the parent a shirt and had them work the event.

To their credit, they were amazing. But afterwards they said it was the hardest thing they had ever done, and they wouldn’t be doing it again. And in the following events there was never a peep about calls from that team again.

So if you find yourself in Delaware on a Saturday between Jan 1 and March 10, give me a call, I have a job for you.

But don’t worry, you calls won’t be overruled by video replay.

[Gear_Geeks]

@Foster

Interesting concept and I’ve done close to that. I had a parent who was always all over the refs. I told them they could not come to the next event unless the parent was the ref. Got the parent a shirt and had them work the event.

To their credit, they were amazing. But afterwards they said it was the hardest thing they had ever done, and they wouldn’t be doing it again. And in the following events there was never a peep about calls from that team again.

So if you find yourself in Delaware on a Saturday between Jan 1 and March 10, give me a call, I have a job for you.

But don’t worry, you calls won’t be overruled by video replay.

Thumbs up!

[action000]

1. I was there. I would have ruled the same. I was surprised that it was ruled that way as the refereeing was very passive all day. There is no doubt that the bump caused the cones to tip and yes, the cone being stuck in the robot would have, IMHO, made it match affecting. This was a much easier (and correct) ruling than the other DQ in the other division minutes later against a robot that was parked. But refereeing is hard, I applaud them for making a call. Your robot should not have put them in the position to make the call that they did.

2. Regarding using video. I don’t like it at all. You’d have 10 cameras recording and you’d have every kid (or parent) coming up after every match trying to point out something. Not good.

EDIT - Sorry, didn’t see that you didn’t want to bring up the debate on whether the call was right or not.

[Aeden_6007]

I think that a more realistic system would be allowing referees to review footage if they choose, but stopping it at that. If referees are uninterested in reviewing videos, they can simply choose not to. I was told explicitly by a ref in the round robin last year that a tip of a robot on our alliance happened too fast for them to see what happened, and that the only reason that they were not reviewing footage was because they were not permitted to (no student had asked for a review of footage)