There are two different issues here. One is the judges watching a different fight from the rest of the world, and the other is whether the fight itself was fair.

Inconsistent decisions about whether a stacked robot is out usually come under the latter category, although its interesting that in this case the judges got involved. There have been as many cases where house robot behaviour (or lack thereof) has caused an unfair result as there have been times when the judges were random.

Personally I think the judges were right to give Tornado the result in season 6; I just feel Razer should have been freed from the angle grinder sooner. (Tornado won the fight, but that shouldnt have been the fight that happened.) In their next meeting both the judges and the house roboteers (or at least, the director) were in their own little world.

The Typhoon 2/Storm 2 final was, again, influenced by the behaviour (or lack thereof) of the house robots as much as by the judges. Storm 2 vs Supernova was just a case of left hand... right hand.

The ACW cage on Tornado was contentious partly because (according, IIRC, to reports on the Razer site at the time) team Razer had been assured on a number of occasions that it was allowed in the current competition (at the time) but wouldnt be allowed in the future. Of course, its *not* allowed now, but only after several fights between the two and Razers probable retirement. It could be argued (and I dont want to get involved) that this meant the team didnt spend as much development effort countering it as they might have done. Plus there was a dodgy judges decision the first time the ACW was used; it all led to the kind of thing we dont really need, in this sport, and the teams werent really to blame for any of it.

The Mortis/Recyclopse fight still rankles - I still have vague ties to Cambridge, but Id only recently graduated when that happened. Rob didnt exactly represent the University in the manner everyone might have liked on that occasion, but I have to agree with the source of his indignation (and approve of Rexs attitude to the sport). Thats when I lost faith in the judges.

The number of fight outcomes which have changed primarily because Matildas tail wont stay out of the way isnt funny. Its one of the main reasons I feel the FRA is better without house robots - and certainly without ones which are better controlled (and fairer) than Mentorns.

Of course, if robots werent trashed by random house robot activity, and if random judging didnt cost people prize money, it probably wouldnt matter. Mind you, its not usually the competitors who rant about this kind of stuff - as Paul says, its the fans like myself. (Mind you, I dont feel Im trying to impose my viewpoint [as distinct from facts about what happened] on anyone - and Im sorry if I ever give that impression; Im just trying to get as much detail about a complex situation as possible to ensure the same cant happen to me when I eventually compete!)

People have their favourites, be they fans or roboteers, and fight judging will always be subjective. If youre wanting a robot to win, its hard not to be biased about its performance. Disagreements are going to happen; its just a pity that many judging decisions seem to be affected not just by favouritism but also by a limited acquisition of the facts. I also cant feel that getting the audience to shout judge, judge, judge (as the warm-up act at Extreme 2 were doing, at least) is conducive to getting a measured, well thought-out conclusion.

It just goes to show that the only safe way to win is to completely disable the opponent - winning on points is always risky, and arguably thats as it should be.

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Fluppet