I'd say no. The blue robot turned into the red robot, so the contact was initiated by blue. And, to be honest, with the lateral size of these robots, a lenient interpretation of the rules would be fairer. It's far easier this year to mistakenly dq yourself. + not match affecting
it could go either way, but from how the video perspective is seen 285x is most likely breaking the plane of the ipz. And while a lenient interpretation would be nice and it is true that this is "not match affecting", I dont believe the rules have a match affecting clause for indirect contact with the ipz which is what is occurring in the video. I agree that a dq wouldn't really make sense, but i believe that is the intended outcome of this situation in the rules.
One of the refs for this match. Since 2587X was not obviously playing defense and 285X was not actively using the IPZ to score (they were waiting for a partner to clear the area), we ruled this as basically the "piece of string" clause. Blue was touching their IPZ and reaching way outside, contacting a Red robot that only appeared to be playing offensively. No SG3-E violation when considering QA#432. BUT, SG3, when considering complex interpretations through new Q&A entries, is just really difficult to call. At worlds, you'll just have to be super careful. The refs will do their best, but you need to do your best to keep them from having to make these calls. I could see, and have seen, the specific interaction in this match called differently. I'm disappointed to see this as part of what would otherwise be a really great game, and I hope the games are designed and rules are written to avoid such difficult judgement calls in the future.
