Competition Rules

The 2024 Rah Cha Cha Ruckus will follow the 2024 FIRST CRESCENDO Rules.

While we feel that FIRST has done a fantastic job with creating a rule book to satisfy every FIRST team, there are a few rule changes that we feel could enhance the game play at this off-season event. The rule modifications which will be used at Ruckus can be found below.

There will be a drivers meeting Saturday morning where any questions can be asked to the head referee. Please refer to the 2024 FIRST CRESCENDO Rules for any rule clarifications first. Thank you!

*** Tentative rule changes as of 6/26!

Rule Modifications

In the rule modifications below, text that is underlined represents Ruckus-specific additions to an existing game rule.

Robot Weight

<R103> is changed as follows:

<R103> The ROBOT weight must not exceed 125.5 130 lbs.

Reasoning: Robots will be given a 5 lb. weight allowance beyond that allowed in the FIRST CRESCENDO official rules in acknowledgement that teams may have had to, or will need to, make repairs to their robot that may put them just over the weight limit. All other portions of this rule remain unchanged and in effect.

Robot Radios

<R616>, <R702>, and <R703> are changed as follows:

<R616> B. using an Ethernet cable between a REV Radio Power Module (RPM) (P/N REV-11-1856) and the RIO 18-24v POE Ethernet port on the wireless bridge, or
C. directly from the PDP or PDH ports described in R617.

<R702>1 Vivid Hosting OpenMesh wireless bridge (P/N: VH-109OM5P-AN or OM5P-AC), that has been configured with the appropriate encryption key for your team number at each event, is the only permitted device for communicating to and from the ROBOT during the MATCH

<R703>The roboRIO Ethernet port must be connected to the wireless bridge port labeled RIO 18-24v POE (either directly, via a network switch, via an RPM, or via a CAT5 Ethernet pigtail).

Reasoning: The manual was changed prior to FIRST Championship to specify the use of the new VH-109 radio for that event. While we acknowledge that the VH-109 has some significant improvements to offer teams and events, teams that did not attend FIRST Championship are unlikely to have a VH-109 to use. Since teams will likely receive these in the 2025 Kit of Parts, we did not want to financially burden teams to acquire one. We also expect that the majority of attending teams will be much more familiar with the use of the OpenMesh radios. Therefore, we are committing to using the OpenMesh radios that teams have used for the majority of the 2024 season. The above rule changes effectively revert the radio-related changes made to the manual in Team Update 21 to swap FIRST Championships to using the VH-109. If your team swapped to the VH-109 for FIRST Championships and feels it may need assistance reverting the OpenMesh radio, please Contact Us in advance of the event.

Game Pieces and Field Elements

Game pieces and field elements employed at Ruckus will be the same as normal events however, we wish to clarify the following:

Game pieces used at Ruckus will be "used" and as such will not be in pristine condition. While we will do our best to use pieces which will not seriously impact team play, teams should expect some variation in game pieces, primarily that NOTES may have markings or significant surface damage.

Robots repeatedly damaging game pieces and/or field elements through sloppy or extremely aggressive game play should expect to draw attention of referees, resulting in DISABLE, TECH FOULs, and/or YELLOW CARD per <G415> Repeat violations will quickly escalate to issuance of YELLOW or RED CARDs per <G212>. We wish to especially caution against reckless and/or high speed impacts with the SOURCE and ALLIANCE STATION walls!

Reasoning: Due to limited availability of game pieces, we will have a limited quantity of spare game pieces on hand; field element damage has been widespread this year and offseason events will not have significant repair capability for field elements; robots causing damage to field elements will be required to correct the situation before being allowed to compete in future MATCHes.

Alliance Selections and Playoffs

ALLIANCE selection and assignment of teams to PLAYER STATIONS will follow CRESCENDO rules for typical regional play. This is not a change to the game rules but we are highlighting this fact here due to the fact that in prior years Ruckus has used the Championship-style alliance selection system (4 team alliances with no backups). Due to the smaller size of the 2024 event we will not be using that system this year and wanted to make this very clear to teams in advance.

The Playoff Match Bracket at Ruckus will follow the same format and structure in the CRESCENDO manual, but with the below change:

Section 10.6.2, Paragraph 2:
As shown in Figure 10-2 and Table 10-2, Playoff MATCHES consist of 6 rounds with breaks between later rounds and between the Finals MATCHES. Breaks begin after the FIELD has been cleared from the previous MATCH. The Blue and Red Gap columns indicate the approximate time between each ALLIANCE’S MATCHES. In Table 10-2, the breaks between matches 12-16 will be 10 minutes rather than 15 minutes. In essence, the playoff format is the same, match sequence is the same, but the timing of matches is changed to shorten the overall length whilst still providing the 10 minute minimum match breaks when teams play back to back.

Reasoning: With Ruckus being a single day off-season competition, time is very limited for both the playoff tournament and the qualification matches that preceed it. While this change does remove some time between playoff matches for teams to do repairs, it is our intent to strike a balance between providing that repair time and giving all teams as many qualification matches as is practical.

Scoring

Section 6.5.6 - Point Values:

The MELODY ranking point criteria used will be that of Regional/District events. For clarity, this is at least 18 (15 if Coopertition Bonus) AMP & SPEAKER NOTES.

While this is not a change from what is in the manual, because scoring was adjusted late in the season, we want to call to the attention of our competing teams that we will be using the scoring rules for regional/district events rather than District Championship or FIRST Championship events.

Real-Time Scoring

Real-time scoring will be employed at Ruckus as with traditional FIRST events. However, we wish clarify operation of the real time scoring as follows:

Any failure of real-time scoring will not be considered an ARENA FAULT provided that the real-time scoring inaccuracies are able to be corrected to the satisfaction of the HEAD REFEREE and field support staff upon conclusion of the MATCH.

Reasoning: While CRESCENDO Real-time scoring has been relatively reliable at official and off-season events, on extremely rare occasions issues do arise. We wish to strike a balance that is both fair to teams in terms of competition play, but at the same time make reasonable allowances for failures or human errors that have no or very limited impact on the strategic play of the game and that do not severely change the end result of the game.