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Official Q&A: VRC 2022-2023: Spin Up

Usage Guidelines All Questions

Robot Ramming another Robot Repeatedly


Joshua Haney (Event Partner)
21-Feb-2023

G12 A. VRC Spin Up is inteded to be an offensive game.

My question centers on the following scenario: Scenario 1 - Red1 Robot is attempting to scoop up discs and score in the high goal throughout the driver portion of the match. Blue1 Robot follows Red1 everywhere constantly ramming the robot in a repeated manner. This happens for the entire 1 minute 45 seconds of driver portion of the match. Blue1 makes no attempt to score whatsoever but did not technically trap the red1 robot because the robot continued to move around the field. However, red1 robot was severely limited in control and scoring and misses all high goal shots. Blue1 is obviously playing a defensive only game. What can the head ref call to stop the constant ramming? The robot is not playing offensively in any match throughout the day (including the scenario above). But the ble1 robot is not trapping because the red1 robot is not "stuck" in one spot.

**Scenario 2 - Same as scenario 1 except the defensive Blue1 robot does push in an occasional 1 point disc into a scoring zone to argue it did score offensively at some point in the match - even though the robot spent the bulk of 1 minute 45 seconds ramming the red1 robot.

Thank you for your reply.

Answered by committee

All Robots in both of your scenarios are playing within the spirit of the Spin Up rules, as described by the last sentence of clause A of rule <G12>, "... defensive play which does not involve destructive or illegal strategies is still within the spirit of this rule."

Aggressive defense is allowed in Spin Up Matches, provided the Head Referee deems that the strategies used are not aimed solely at the destruction, damage, tipping over, or Entanglement of opposing Robots.