At our state championship, the head referee decided that when a robot is guarding a Mobile Goal placed in a corner while possessing another Mobile Goal, another team could push them into the goal they were guarding, and the defensive (guarding) team would automatically receive an <SG6> violation. Below is a diagram of how this could happen, with the red alliance defending the goals and the blue alliance pushing them into the corner:
However, most of us at the competition thought that this ruling was in direct contradiction with <G15>, which states:
You can't force an opponent into a penalty. Intentional strategies that cause an opponent to break a rule are not permitted, and will not result in a Violation for the opposing alliance.
During the competition, teams were able to ram a bot guarding a corner while possessing a goal into the corner (in the scenario described above), giving the guarding team and instant <SG6> violation and giving the alliance an instantaneous 2 win points. The referee's logic for this decision was that by guarding the positive corner while possessing a Mobile Goal, the guarding team was forcing any team that wanted to contest the corner into a <G15> violation, and consequentially, the <G15> violations "canceled out." They also stated that the guarding team should be able to move out of the way or drop their goal to avoid a disqualification, but this logic doesn't make sense, because it forces the guarding team to either give up a mobile goal or give up the positive corner to avoid a disqualification.
This leads us to our main question:
- Does guarding a Mobile Goal placed in a positive corner while possessing another goal void you from <G15> protections? (i.e, should a team be able to force you into a Disqualification if you are guarding a corner in the scenario described in this post?)