In the Manual there are no rules that I could find talking about robot placement which has caused us some controversy at some tournaments. Outside of competition we practiced driver skills by placing the robot on one side of the arena , let’s say blue, and had the driver stand on the opposite side , so red, so that the robot intakes cubes and drives across arena towards the driver and stacking in the red non protected zone so the driver can spot the stack easier. We have been able to do this at some tournaments but at our most recent we were prohibited from doing such since there were no rules for or against it . Is there somewhere that might have been over looked in the manual talking about robot placement in skills? Or where can inquire an official q and a?
During skills, you are usually on the red team. Also, for Tower Takeover, you are able to score in all goal zones, so if you flip your “routine” so that the robot is on the red side instead of blue, you should be able to do the same thing and score the same amount of points.
Edit: changed a word
What we are manly trying to find out is whether or not we have to stand on the side the robot starts on or if we could stand on the opposing so that the initial collection of cubes can be done driving towards the driver opposed to away in order to better see that the robot stays in line and collects the proper cubes as this is how the driver has practiced a few weeks with
What I’ve seen a couple people do is have another person be on the blue side and have the driver on the red side. I’m not exactly sure if your driver is required to stay on the red side though.
In our first few tournaments we were able to run it as I originally stated with the addition of another teammate spotting when the robot was far from the driver. The head ref at our most recent tournament however stated that we had to run it like in a qualifying match where the robot had to start on same side as the driver and no one could go move around the arena only because there was no rule saying we could and nothing saying we couldn’t, but did say if we could show somewhere were it is not illegal it would be allowed. We will be seeing this ref again
I’m not so sure, you might want to ask the official Q&A on this one.
Okay thank you. Can you direct me where to find the official q and a?
Here’s the link: Q&A: VRC 2019-2020: Tower Takeover : Robot Events
There is already an official Q&A for this:
Answered: Yes - can put robot on one side and start on the other
https://www.robotevents.com/VRC/2019-2020/QA/408
Pending: Unknown - can have some stand on each side
https://www.robotevents.com/VRC/2019-2020/QA/465
Remember, the official Vex Q&A is the ONLY place that you can get answers that refs are allowed to use as a definitive source (outside the game manual, of course). Since it has been answered on the official Q&A, you should save that answer and be able to present it (politely!) to the tournament head ref if the question comes up.
My bad, I was referring to past games in which most of the time, you were red in skills.
This is just my personal interpretation.
But i would thought that the keyword in RSC1(a) have answered this issue - “… the chosen Alliance’s side.”
I would interpret it as - if the team have decided (or chose) to start at a specific colour, then the drivers will need to be stationed at that chosen alliance’s side?
1(b) and (c ) are the specific rules that give teams the flexibility to score with any colours and towers.
I agree that my initial reading of the game manual / skills appendix also led me to believe that if you chose red you should stay on the red side (and vice versa). Looks like the GDC disagrees, though!
Q&A has now been answered and not only can you stand in either alliance station (Clarification of Alliance Station in Skills Challenge : Robot Events), you can also have some of the drive team members standing in BOTH alliance stations (Further Clarification of Alliance Station in Skills Challenge : Robot Events). Go figure…
oh gosh…
just reminded me of the old gateway programming skills era… the drivers running from one start tile to another to align the robots…
I am not sure the rules allow for drive team members to leave the alliance station in this version of game.
just reminded me of that season that’s all… just an old man thinking of the past memories.
I am not saying it is the same.
But that said - now that the rules allow the drivers to be in different sides of the field, not entire wrong for one of them to go from one alliance station to the other? as long as the driver holding the controller will still stay at the same place (since G8 only mentioned about the controller)?
Argh another Q&A 
I have no clue on this one - my gut says no, but on skills Q&A I have been so wrong.