Robotics Education & Competition Foundation
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The Q&A is closed for the 2021-2022 season. Any rule changes or clarifications pertaining to the 2022 VEX Robotics World Championship will be included in the April 5 Game Manual Update. Teams attending VEX Worlds who wish to pre-submit questions for the driver's meeting should have received a contact form via email; if not, please contact your REC Foundation Team Engagement Manager for more information.

Official Q&A: VRC 2021-2022: Tipping Point

Usage Guidelines All Questions

Multiple violations of SG3; follow-up to Q&A 907


Michelle Lonsinger
10-Feb-2022

In speaking with some other local head referees, we identified an edge case of SG3 (During the last 30 seconds, Robots may not contact the opposing Alliance’s Platform.) in which we're ruling things differently. Q&A 907 indicates that each violation of SG3 is considered a separate incident with a separate penalty.

Here's an edge case in which the GDC's intent isn't completely clear to us, even with the examples provided in 907 & other Q&As: Let's say a red robot pushes a blue robot into the red platform during the Endgame. The blue robot attempts to escape, and moves briefly away from the platform before being pushed back into one or more additional touches. In this particular example, let's say this "pinball" back and forth does not exceed the 5-second Trapping limit. Should these touches each be counted as a separate SG3 violation, or should this sequence of touches be considered a single violation?

Local referees have made good arguments for both cases, and we want to be sure we're ruling consistently across divisions at the upcoming state championship. Thank you for your help!

Answered by committee

This situation is extremely context-sensitive and ultimately within the Head Referee's discretion given a specific Match. In most cases, the situation you describe would likely be considered a single violation, as it was effectively the same occurrence of the actual violation action.

We cannot provide specific times or distances which a Robot must "back away" before a second SG3 violation occurs. The hypothetical scenario described in Q&A 907 would be an example of a situation where the two actions occurred independently of each other, and would therefore be ruled as separate violations.