<G4><G4>I belong to a public high school robotics program, and we only have enough students enrolled in the class for two people on each team. Because of this year’s match loading strategy, we have been using classmates assigned to different teams within our class for the third member of our drive team during matches to help load. <G4> subsection (a.) outlines the permissible change of team members, and it seems as though point ii. makes the intent of the rule clear that the rule is designed to prevent one person from specializing in a specific aspect of the robot engineering/design/driving and then applying their specialized skill to multiple teams. Our current use of classmates as a match loader doesn’t give us any strategic advantages, only allows us to compete on a level playing field with larger teams. As per the violation notes our league has already determined our situation an acceptable instance, but I would love some clarification before we head to larger, higher-level tournaments.<G4>
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Official Q&A: VRC 2023-2024: Over Under
1735: Triball loader/teammember requirement
As described in rule <G4>:
Each Team must include Drive Team Members, Programmer(s), Designer(s), and Builder(s). No Student may fulfill any of these roles for more than one VEX Robotics Competition Team in a given competition season.
The definition of Drive Team Member in the game manual is:
A Student who stands in the Alliance Station during a Match. Adults are not allowed to be Drive Team Members. See rules <G8>, <G9>, and <G10>.
The scenario you've presented is a Violation of rule <G4>, regardless of the size and/or level of the qualifying event. A Student may only serve as a Drive Team Member (which includes an individual who only handles Match Loads) for a single Team during the Season, unless they permanently switch Teams for non-strategic reasons as described in clauses Ai-iii of rule <G4>.