So according to this, and the note at the bottom, both teams have to be on one 8 feet side of the field. This means a team will have to drive their bot upside down, because their bot will be on the other side.
I dont understand how this is fair, or how it makes sense
I guess you’ve never driven R/C cars or airplanes…lots of practice is needed, but perfectly “fair”.
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I am not sure what you are getting at. Yes, One team if they are running the bottom Driver Station orientation, one team will have to drive upside down at the start. But then after that the robot can move to the other side, in my experience, this has not hindered me or my teammates at states and regionals. Yes, it is something you should practice beforehand, but it is not that much of a adjustment.
(Clarification added, thanks for the feedback.)
Just to absolutely clear for anyone reading the thread, “they” is the robot, not the driver, moving to the other side. Drivers must stay in the driver station (except for the exception in the game manual for programming skills).
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Or VEX IQ robots before 2020.
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I suggest you edit your post and title and say “backwards” or “towards themselves” instead of “upside down”, because when I opened this I was wondering what would make someone think they have to drive hanging from the ceiling.
If both teams have the “meta” strategy, sort of, yes, for a little bit. You could have two different strategies so that you don’t have to drive towards yourself, for example:
Fair to who? You will have to do it about half the time; your partners will have to do it about half the time; everybody at worlds will have to do it about half the time.
Except us, I guess, since we will be practicing driving “upside down” until Worlds, so we can give our partners the easy half. I’m planning on everybody else practicing the way you see it in high-scoring videos, so we will be able to do it how we’ve practiced and they will be able to do it how they’ve practiced.
All I can say is, sorry you don’t like it, but it’s in the rules. You’ll have to learn to drive upside down or expect your partner to be able to competently. Complaining isn’t going to get you anywhere.
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Just Clarifying, This is Illegal,
This is right. here is a diagram to explain further -
Sorry it is so bad quality, but red is one robot starting point, and blue is the other teams starting points.
There is no requirement in normal match play that the two robots start on different sides of the field.
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No. The Drivers have to stand on one 8’ field side. The Robots may be started in any of 8 legal starting positions.
Q&A:
Question:
The confusion is that all images of robots in starting positions in the game manual show the two teamwork robots starting along opposite long sides and on different sides (not on the same side of Low Bar). We believe that the images are NOT to be interpreted as a requirement or limitation for where each team may choose to start the match.
Meaning, let us consider Starting Positions to be named #1 - #8. If Team #1 chooses to setup their robot in Spot #1, Team #2 could choose to setup their robot in any of the other 7 “Starting Position”(s), including the spot that may be adjacent to Spot #1 where Robot #1 choose to start.
Is this reading of the rules correct?
Yes, this is correct, in a Teamwork Challenge Match. The examples shown in the field images are just meant to represent one possible starting configuration.
It is legal.
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