Is it legal to spray paint the license plates a team color? It seems that that would be a non-functional decoration???
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Official Q&A: VIQC 2019-2020: Squared Away
379: Spray painting license plates
Answered by Game Design Committee
Please review the Q&A Usage Guidelines, specifically point 3, "Quote the applicable rule from the latest version of the manual in your question."
License Plates are governed by rule R3, quoted below with a portion bolded for emphasis:
<R3> Only registered Teams may compete in the VEX IQ Challenge. To participate in an official VEX IQ Challenge Event, a Team must first register on robotevents.com. Upon registering they will receive their VEX IQ Challenge Team Number and two (2) VEX IQ Challenge License Plates. Every Robot should have their VEX IQ Challenge License Plates displayed on two opposing sides with their VEX IQ Challenge Team Number clearly written or printed upon it.
a. **License Plates must fulfill all Robot rules. **
b. License Plates must be clearly visible at all times. For example, License Plates must not be in a position that would be easily obstructed by a Robot mechanism during standard Match play.
Paint is covered in another Robot rule, R8. So, per R3a, this rule applies to License Plates as well. R8 is quoted below, with a portion bolded for emphasis:
<R8> Some non-VEX items are permitted. Robots are allowed to use the following additional “non-VEX IQ” components:
a. Appropriate non-functional decorations, provided that these do not affect the Robot performance in any significant way or affect the outcome of the Match. These decorations must be in the spirit of the event. Inspectors will have the final say in what is considered “non-functional”.
i. Any decorations must be backed by legal materials that provide the same functionality (i.e. if your Robot has a giant decal that prevents Game Objects from falling out of the Robot, the decal must be backed by VEX IQ material that also prevents the Game Objects from falling out).
ii. The use of non-toxic paint is considered a legal non-functional decoration. However, any paint being used as an adhesive or to impact how tightly parts fit together would be classified as functional.
Therefore, as long as no other rules are violated (such as R3b), painting License Plates would be legal.