I would like to pose this question to the forum based on the situation below to see if your interpretation and decision would be the same as the judges here at World’s in the MS Opportunity division.
At the end of a match its close between both sides and the blue side makes a mad dash back for the starting square bonus. Both teams make it. Red sees the move and tries to match it. One team makes it and the other is 2-3 inches short of getting there.
After the field shuts down and the judge move in the the team who did not make it reaches out and grabs their robot and drags it the extra 3 inches into the square. They then start frantically flagging the refs to prove they are in the square. The blue teams protest immediately and one judge acknowledges he saw what they did.
What would your decision for that team be? DQ from the tournament? DQ from the event? Is cheating really as big a deal as Vex says it is?
Well, after two rounds of discussion with the judges the cheating team was allowed to keep the win, stay in the tournament and receive alliance finals spot. The judges said they were ‘scolded’ and told that if they cheated AGAIN they would be disqualified.
We need more details. Was it an international team? Was the field already being cleared? Was the match close? Did those ten points have an effect on the outcome of the match?
As it stands, I would utilize G16 to have them DQ’ed from the match for their behavior.
It was an international team, although I’m not sure that makes any difference? The match was close, around a 20 pt difference. It may not have affected the outcome of the match.
I’m not sure that a team making it to Worlds could misinterpret and be excused for reaching out and physically relocating their robot to improve their score after a match no matter where they are from but that’s why I was asking. Thanks.
Just to be clear, I am not making a point that the cheating was OK, I would have DQ’ed them without a doubt in my mind if the story occurred exactly as you say.
I am just trying to emphasize that there are many factors that could be at play and there may be their side to this story. In order to avoid blaming the team for something they didn’t intend to do or starting a witchhunt, it is important to know all of the details and how different things have an effect on the situation. Yes, a team at the World Championships would know the rules and not misinterpret them. But they may have misinterpreted the referee signaling an all clear or been pointing to their robot to see if they could remove it from the field.
Context and detail matter. Knowledge of the rules is meant to be tempered with wisdom.
Based on the facts as presented here, I’d say “DQ” for the match, with a warning that a repeated offense will be a “DQ” from the tournament.
But the refs were the ones on the floor, and their decision also sounds reasonable depending on a number of other minor factors that may have been considered. Sometimes a “don’t be stupid, you’re embarassing yourselves” type warning is sufficient as a learning opportunity.