SITUATION: RED is camping in the positive corner holding a goal while protecting its placed goal (not touching placed goal). A lightweight, BLUE pushbot comes quickly at RED in order to get to the placed goal and remove it. RED never moved in the direction of BLUE. BLUE drives upon the side of RED and gets stuck. Blue cannot free themselves despite still having two wheels on the ground. Offensive RED in no way is controlling the movements of the BLUE defensive robot. RED sits still until the 30-second buzzer, then drives straight, which frees the BLUE robot from their side. Obviously, RED could have moved earlier and freed the BLUE robot that drove on top of them, but it would have been at the risk of letting the defensive robot drive in and remove their goal from the positive corner.
QUESTION: Should RED be called for lifting and a 5-count started? Or would it not be considered lifting because of the following reasons: 1) the RED robot never "raised or tilted" the blue robot off the ground. Instead, the BLUE robot drove on top of the RED. 2) The RED robot never was controlling the BLUE robot's movements. 3) According to <G15>, you can't force an opponent into a violation. 4) According to <G14>, the offensive robot gets the benefit of the doubt.
I called it the latter yesterday and feel like it's the correction interpretation of the combined rules, but I thought it would be beneficial for the VEX community as a whole (Refs and students) to get it clarified in a Q&A. As a ref, I'd love to have a specific Q&A to point the teams to. Or, if I'm incorrect, it would also be beneficial to know the correct interpretation.
RULES IN CONSIDERATION:
Lifting – Controlling an opponent’s movements by raising or tilting the opponent’s Robot off of the foam tiles.
<G16> No Holding for more than a 5-count. A Robot may not Hold an opposing Robot for more than a 5-count during the Driver Controlled Period
<G14> Offensive Robots get the “benefit of the doubt.” In a case where Head Referees are forced to make a judgment call regarding a destructive interaction between a defensive and offensive Robot, or an interaction which results in a questionable Violation, referees will decide in favor of the offensive Robot.
<G15> 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.
Thank you! The GDC is doing an awesome job this year answering our questions. Much appreciated!