Rules question - Goal on wrong robot

[AmbiguousKoala]

At a recent tournament, a blue robot was playing defense against a red robot. The blue robot had no scoring objects, while the red robot was carrying an empty red mobile goal. Upon the collision of the two robots, the red goal slipped out of the red robot, and fell on top of the blue robot. The blue, defending, robot tried to get it off, but it was stuck on because of how it fell for the remainder of the match. A couple of the refs wanted to DQ the blue robot. Did the blue robot deserve to be disqualified? Playing defense caused it be committing what would be a foul, but it was due to the poor design of the red holder. Although the rules say to lean in favor of offense, the problems in the red robot caused it to drop on the blue robot. How would you call this? The blue alliance also won the match, by much more than the value of the goal, meaning it was not match affecting.

[MasterCole]

No, the red bot should have technically been DQed for forcing the other bot to do something illegal. However, I think the moral thing to do is not DQ anyone, as both of the bots suffered equally from the instance and the red team already caused enough pain on themselves

[Amadeus]

<SG6> Robots may not intentionally grasp, grapple or attach to any Field Elements or the opposing Mobile Goals. Strategies with mechanisms that react against multiple sides of a Field Element in an effort to latch onto said Field Element are prohibited. The intent of this rule is to prevent Teams from both unintentionally damaging the field and/or from anchoring themselves to the field. Minor violations of this rule that do not affect the Match will result in a warning. Match Affecting offenses will result in a Disqualification. Teams that receive multiple warnings may also receive a Disqualification at the Head Referee’s discretion

If it were up to me, I would give out a warning to the blue team, telling them they need to be careful while playing defensively.

[MasterCole]

A warning would be a good way to ensure that it doesn’t happen again without actually punishing either team.

[blatwell]

Penalizing the red robot is out of the question. They did nothing wrong or against the rules. They did not intentionally place the mogo on the blue robot. That is the easiest thing to determine.

The issue of whether or not it was match affecting is more than just a question of the difference in the score and the value of the mogo. According to a recent answer on the official Q&A, the time delay can also be part of the calculus as can the flow of the game.

The real issue here is if the blue robot actually violated any rules by carrying around the mogo. Here is the applicable rule:

<SG6> Robots may not intentionally grasp, grapple or attach to any Field Elements or the opposing Mobile Goals. Notice the word “intentionally” as the qualifier in this rule. If it is clear that there was no intent, then the rule has not been violated.