BotFest 4 (25th April 2020)

[McMullet]

I suspect the provision for "organised team sport" is based on sports where the teams are necessarily greater than six people. E.g., if you're playing 5-a-side football you have to have at least 10 people in total. Whereas singles badminton is played with only two people, so you don't need to exceed the limit. I don't think that would include us, even if they decide to class combat robotics as a sport (which I also doubt, regardless of my own feelings on the subject!).

I would like the event to go ahead but not enough to try and squeeze around the rules. The guidance is crap but ultimately it makes sense to minimise contact with other people and the current situation isn't looking great*. Hopefully things will be clearer in a few days, but whatever happens don't feel under any pressure to go ahead Lucy - it's not worth getting yourself, or the venue, in trouble over.


[rant]*...despite the fact that half the reporting is utter nonsense - they keep talking about how many new cases have been "recorded", but they're ignoring delays in recording and processing results - a lot of the apparent sudden spike is due to specimens from several days ago being processed late...![/rant]

[Ocracoke]

Fighting robotics, I would argue, is a sport in the sense that it is highly organised, has the same type of rules and structure in place as you would football or cricket or whichever traditional sport you care to mention and is competitive. An event like this, where you had to register beforehand, walk-ins are not permitted, strict hygiene requirements are being enforced and contact information collected well in advance of the event itself should qualify as "organised" at the very least.

And yet you make a good point about the numbers and the expectation. This is why it is a "grey area" for me and that is why I am making the call only after I've seen the announcement by the government at 16:00 BST today and the actual law bill in PDF format. I also get the basic premise and idea behind this restriction being (re)introduced.

[James Williams]

I realise this is a long shot but could we move the event to this Saturday, before the new rules come into force?

[team death]

So the new changes have be announced about Covid and unless you break the rules regarding 6 people
gathering together I don't see a problem.
For an ant weight event you don't need more than one overseer and one person per team to approach the
Arena-Makes 3-job done-fight/clean/repeat.
I suspect this church your proposing has plenty of room for social distancing so no Jobsworth police man
or council official could say it was a gathering of more than 6 people.
Ultimately it's your decision Lucy,read the PDF on rules if you can find it but I suspect it will be as clear
as Mud.
Section 2.1/2
https://www.gov.uk/government/public...an-and-cant-do

[RogueTwoRobots]

Maybe harder to argue for antweights, but lifting heavyweight scale robots in and out of sheds/garages/cars/vans is a hell of a lot of physical activity

[Ocracoke]

I realise this is a long shot but could we move the event to this Saturday, before the new rules come into force?

I am afraid not.

So the recent (upcoming) law change has pretty much made running BotFest 4 impossible to do in its current form. The exemption around team sports only applies if the governing body has submitted a plan to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (the DCMS) and it is subsequently listed on the page regarding team sports frameworks (ref: https://www.gov.uk/government/public...rt-framework):

Once DCMS has given this confirmation, the national governing body will be linked at the bottom of this page. Until the national governing body is linked on GOV.UK, the team sport should not restart.

The FRA isn't listed there so it would be illegal for the event to continue as planned as is my understanding. I did briefly consider splitting the event into its group stages but there would still be the situation where there would be more than 6 people present in a certain group and there is also the extended timeline to consider, not to mention the cost of event insurance which I've had to swallow due to the change. Therefore, it is with regret that I am have to pull the plug on the event again. All of the form data will be wiped as per GDPR.

Honestly, I am gutted and sorry this has happened again. I know this event was being looked forwards to and I was really looking forwards to it myself.

[McMullet]

Thanks for the update Lucy. It sucks but at least you know where you stand now. Until the next time!

[Bad Wolf]

Ahhh thats a real shame But totally out of everyones hands and just one of those things! On to 2021 now I guess and lets pretend 2020 never happened!

Viva La Bot Fest!

[Ocracoke]

Aye, just one of those things. Short of a miracle happening, I am not expecting to run an event now until next year. By then... BotFest might have a completely new arena.

[Ocracoke]

OK, so following the announcement of the provisional roadmap by the government, my proposal is to have BotFest 4, finally, at the end of June though this does depend on, amongst other things, A) Wherever or not the law permits this at a reasonable time before the event itself and B) when AWS 62 is scheduled for.

Again, I stress, this is a proposal but at least a glimmer.

[team death]

Hi Lucy
If you could organise an outdoor event-maybe under a gazebo I believe 27th of March is the official
start date for sporting events outdoors though it's up to the individual to assess when they feel
prepared to hold any event.

[James Williams]

Awesome! Hope we can finally have this! TBH I don't think we'd have an AWS so soon after lockdown is eased so you're probably good on that front.

[Ocracoke]

Hi Lucy
If you could organise an outdoor event-maybe under a gazebo I believe 27th of March is the official
start date for sporting events outdoors though it's up to the individual to assess when they feel
prepared to hold any event.

I did consider a outdoors event and I am open to considering it. Nothing is set in stone.

Awesome! Hope we can finally have this! TBH I don't think we'd have an AWS so soon after lockdown is eased so you're probably good on that front.

Yeah, I hope we can have this too. :P As I understand it, AWS 62 hasn't been scheduled yet? I'll need to check RW101 to see what the latest is there.

[James Williams]

I know Harry was planning to host it at one point. Whether or not he's still interested IDK, I could always ask Dave what the score is if you want.

[McMullet]

Hooray! It's looking a bit vague at the moment but it sounded like pubs would potentially be allowed to do outside service by mid April, so if I can go and have a pint in a beer garden I would've thought outdoor robot combat would be permitted.

Anyway, whenever it happens I'll look forward to being not quite ready in time and rushing despite having over a year to finish something.