I’m just curious about other people’s experiences with refs and officials at VEX tournaments. I personally have run the gambit from lenient judges who let you cycle the power after time begins, to Nazis who asked that drivers turn their controlers around during autonomous to make sure no one is driving. Personally, I prefer the later. Strict judges normally know the rules better and in tournaments where some teams may not understand all the rules at least strict refs make sure no one gets away with anything. Personally it drives me insane when judges don’t know the rules. Of course any rants we have about officials should come with the phrase, “but it’s ok because they are volunteers and VEX would be nothing without them.” So we should always respect the judges even when they drive us nuts. Finally (I know I write a lot) I was also wondering if anyone had ever exercised their power to “challenge” a rule on the field and do you allow any call for a check of the rule book at your regionals?
I also prefer more strict judges and officials, because they tend to prevent teams from getting (dis)advantages that other teams don’t have.
At the last tournament that my team competed at, the field was upside down so our line trackers didn’t work. The field officials wouldn’t let my team flip the field right side up until the lunch break. This caused my team’s robot to perform less than satisfactorily in the qualification rounds. But during lunch, the field officials let my team flip the field and my team’s robot started working better.
I know that if that ^^ happened to one of our teams the members, and the advisors would have had some harsh words for the judges. You could even argue that the whole regional would be unofficial if the field was not regulation. Kudos to you guys for not throwing a fit.
I’m going to stay out of this, but I would like to point out that referees run the matches and do the scoring, while judges interview teams and decide who gets the trophies for the judged awards. Judges have nothing to do with interpreting the game rules or resolving conflicts. The ultimate authority at most VEX events is the tournament director, who, if he is wise, defers to the head ref for all game-related issues.
So far in this thread, none of your comments apply to judges. HTH.
Whoops my bad. Dumb mistake, ask my team those happen quite often when I’m around 