Anyone been DQed at Nationals and felt it was wrong

[zbuilder]

I have been DQed twice at Nationals, both times I would have gotten first place in the respective event had it not been for the DQ. I was wondering what kind of things people are getting DQed for and if they feel it was justified? I am also curious about how often you were able to successfully appeal a DQ? Finally, how often have you had another team appeal your device or event, even after the Event Coordinator saw nothing wrong with it?

[jazzy009]

zbuild- what did you get DQed for? in any case, thats a major bummer.

ive never been DQed at nats but i did get DQed at an invite this year. my partners cell phone went off. anyway, also last year a DQ for boomilever. it took the entire night before to make it (cramming doesnt work all the time) and it didnt fit the rules...forgot to measure it. it wouldve medaled but oh well.

[ichaelm]

I have to wonder: what were you disqualified for? I'm assuming that the only way you could know that you would have come in first would be if it was a building event, and if it was a building event then I'm assuming that you used a similar device for regionals and states, and that you weren't disqualified for those competitions (otherwise you probably wouldn't have made it to nationals), so I'm curious as to what happened.

I've almost been disqualified once, but my partner was able to pull it off without me: http://scioly.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php? ... rts#p13523

[jazzy009]

Not necessarily ich. you can get disqualified for a bunch of reasons...that should never get you DQed, though i understand. and then there are some like events that you are allowed to bring a specific book, you could bring a different one... i knew a team in my conference that did that last year, they thought the suggested book was bad.

[ichaelm]

Umm, did I ever specify or imply the reasons for the disqualification? Or am I missing something.

[jazzy009]

i think... you can know that you wouldve come in first in a study or lab event. sometimes you get DQed near the end and sometimes you just take the test with the dq and end up in the second tier for it. the instructors know where you would have placed and the nice ones tell you if you did a good job and were just unlucky.

[ichaelm]

Oh.

[WrightStuffMonster]

In the building events I have participated in at nationals I have found that the vast majority of the event supervisors are very knowledgeable in the events and while quite strict, the event supervisors generally err on the side of the students if they are unsure. I dont think they would DQ someone without good reason.

[Glacierguy1]

My Partners Cell phone went off in the middle of oceanography during States last year. I think we might have been DQed if the Event supervisor hadn't noticed that I would have thrown him out the window if he got us DQed.

The previous year I was almost 2nd tiered in Wheeled Vehicle in Div. B States because someone misinterpreted the rules about whether the foremost point of the vehicle had to be non moving or the foremost nonmoving point of the vehicle had to be marked. When my coach protested, my wheeled vehicle and about 12 others were un second tiered. However, during the time they gave me a chance to fix the problem, but I was so nervous that I almost destroyed the Wheeled Vehicle in the process.

[Matthew]

In the building events I have participated in at nationals I have found that the vast majority of the event supervisors are very knowledgeable in the events and while quite strict, the event supervisors generally err on the side of the students if they are unsure. I dont think they would DQ someone without good reason.

More importantly, they should've been quite clear why you had been disqualified. (Note: I consider DQ to be "do not pass go, do not collect $200" type offenses.) (Knowingly) cheating would get you a DQ, whereas having a device that didn't meet a spec would merely be a technical offense, and get you ranked below other teams who were in spec.

If you're DQ'ed, your coaches can file a protest to the arbitration board. If we don't explicitly state why you were disqualified, it almost always results in an overturned DQ.

For the record, as a event supervisor, I'm currently 13-1 in arbitrations, and the one we lost, we realized we had screwed up before the arbitration board made a decision. We ended up letting the team run their device again to attempt to gain maximum points, which they felt was a fair compromise. We do our best to keep things as fair as possible, while resolving problems without arbitration as a rule. Being that many judges are now also SO alumni, we understand how much work you've put into your events- and we want to honor that as much as possible because it's what we'd want for ourselves.