Lesson 1: Identifying and Classifying Violations

Handling a violation comes down to two questions: did a rule get broken, and how serious was it? The first is recognition, the skill the rest of this course has already been building, lesson by lesson. The second is classification — choosing the right level of response. Most of the time that response is small, so this lesson is less about catching teams and more about matching a clear, consistent response to what actually happened.

Before continuing, read the following in the current Game Manual:

• Appendix C, which defines a Violation, a Minor Violation, a Major Violation, and Match Affecting.
• The Disablement and Disqualification definitions in the Glossary (Appendix B).
• <T1> Head Referees have ultimate and final authority on all gameplay and Robot ruling decisions.

When a Violation Has Occurred

A violation is simply the act of breaking a rule in the Game Manual. Recognizing one is the skill you have been building throughout this course — like a possession limit exceeded, a hold that ran past a 3-count, or a robot crossing the Autonomous Line. Just as important is recognizing what is not a violation: the incidental contact, tipping, and tangling that are a normal part of an interactive game.

Violations can happen in Robot Skills Matches too. Because a Skills Match has no opposing alliance, the framework is simpler: there is no Match Affecting question, and a Disqualification results in a score of 0 for that match. Robot Skills fields are watched by a Scorekeeper Referee, with a Head Referee available to explain any ruling.

Once you have identified that a rule was broken, the next step is to classify how serious it was.

Classifying the Violation

Most violations are routine, and most are handled with nothing more than a verbal warning. The levels below move from least to most serious:

• Verbal warning (informal) — Not a penalty, but a clear heads-up during the match that a rule is being broken, giving the team a chance to correct before anything escalates. Many situations never go further than this.
• Minor Violation — A violation that does not result in a Disqualification. Accidental, momentary, or otherwise non–Match Affecting violations are usually Minor, and usually come with a verbal warning during the match.
• Major Violation — A violation that results in a Disqualification. Unless a rule says otherwise, every Match Affecting violation is a Major Violation (you will learn to determine Match Affecting in the next lesson). Egregious, strategic, or intentional violations can also be Major even when they are not Match Affecting, and repeated Minor Violations can escalate to a Major at your discretion or as a specific rule directs.
• Disqualification — The result of a Major Violation. How a Disqualification plays out depends on whether it happens in a Qualification or Elimination Match, which will be covered in Lesson 3.

Disablement is separate from this ladder. It is a safety penalty, not a measure of how serious a rule break was. A team that receives a Disablement may not operate its robot for the rest of the match and is asked to set its controllers down. You apply it when a robot is unsafe, whether or not a Minor or Major Violation is also involved.

One requirement connects classification to documentation: when you issue a Minor or Major Violation, you must be able to point to the specific rule number that was broken. Recording it is part of the after-match documentation that will be covered in Lesson 3.