What Can Be Done About Blatant G2/R2 violations?

VEX V5 Robotics Competition
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I only have a basic awareness of it, but the Japanese concept of Shuhari resonates to me. For those not familiar:

Shu (“protect” / “follow”)

  • Focus: Learning the fundamentals by strictly adhering to and imitating a master’s teachings.

  • Action: Rote memorization of techniques, forms, and movements without questioning the underlying theory.

  • Goal: To absorb and internalize the foundational knowledge of a skill.

Ha (“break” / “detach”)

  • Focus: Moving beyond strict imitation to explore and experiment with the techniques and principles learned.

  • Action: Breaking away from tradition, questioning existing methods, and integrating different perspectives or teachers.

  • Goal: To adapt the skill, personalize it, and begin to develop a unique understanding.

Ri (“break” / “detach”)

  • Focus: Achieving a state of intuitive mastery, where techniques are second nature.

  • Action: The practitioner acts naturally and creatively, no longer bound by formal structures or rules.

  • Goal: To create new approaches, innovate, and potentially set off on one’s own path, contributing to the art’s evolution.

In this sense, “hole counting” (however one defines that) is the first stage of mastery. Obviously there are ways to go about the Shu phase and incur G2/R2 violations, but I think there can be ways that this phase can be acheived without G2/R2 violations, in student-centered collaborative fashion.

Then there’s the famous “Good artists copy, great artists steal” approach. We see this with design convergence and the evolution of a META as the season progresses. Teams, rightly, will watch early-season tournaments, see what is successful, and legitimately use those designs as inspiration for their own. Of course, I’m not so naive as to believe ALL teams do this, and there are clearly problems where a team’s robot does not match the team’s skill.

I do like the collaborative nature of Vex, and would hope that it continues to err on the side of fostering collaboration over harsh enforcement of G2/R2. That’s not to say there should be no G2/R2s, and I do think that the egregious violations should face consequences.