Yes, our middle school team was DQed on bottle rockets when it should have been tier III at the worst. Our bottle rocket landed in a tree on the first run and on the roof of a building the second run (gotta say, our MS team's bottle rockets were amazing, but the venue was tiny w/lots of trees, so many teams' rockets got stuck in or on things). The first run, the ES told our team's parents that they could throw a football at the rocket to dislodge it from the tree, but the students had to be the only ones to touch the rocket. We did so. The second run, the ES said that they weren't willing to go on the roof (it was a flat roof, but it was wet and rainy outside); our kids (obviously) couldn't go out on the roof for safety reasons, but the ES told our parents that they could go out onto the roof to get the rocket and hand it directly inside to one of our students. The ES asked to see the rocket afterwards and gave us a tier I, when, yes, it probably should have been a tier III - since the ES basically deemed the rocket 'irretrievable', moved on to subsequent teams, and then revised our team's tier afterwards. Anyway, after the competition, NBMS protested, and MSO changed the score from 1st to DQed since, with the permission of the ES, our parents technically did help retrieve the rocket on the second run after the rocket had been deemed irretrievable by the judges and they had moved on to the next team. Regardless, though, of whether we received a DQ on the event or a Tier III, we would have lost a ton of points, and NB would have won. Congrats NBMS - We hope you all have an awesome time at nationals!!r00ki316 wrote:Any word on what happened? Your change of scores (90 for NBMS actually) point to Pilgrimage initially being awarded 1st in Bottle Rockets and later being disqualified in the event.asthedeer wrote:Correction:John Richardsim wrote:North Carolina
Maryland
Division B:
1. Pilgrimage Homeschool (86)
2. North Bethesda Middle School (91)
3. Urbana Middle School (141)
Full Scores
Division B for Maryland-
1. North Bethesda Middle School (91)
2. Pilgrimage Homeschool (112)
3. Urbana Middle School (141)
Congratulations NBMS for (finally) beating Pilgrimage!! Now go to Nationals and CONQUER and REPRESENT MARYLANDDDDD!!!!!
That said, DQ is supposed to be reserved for instances of cheating and poor sportsmanship - and throughout this event, we followed the event supervisor's instructions. Additionally, parental help in retrieval didn't occur until *after* the ES told us that our rocket was irretrievable... they did also tell us that if we could get it off the roof (the person who got it off the roof was actually NOT one of our MS team's parents, but he was an HS team parent) they'd adjust the scoring. Regardless, though , throughout this event, our students and parents tried their hardest to follow ES instructions and play by the rules, so being DQed is sad. Tier III makes sense for this event, I think, - but being DQed implies that our team cheated and/or disregarded what the ES said. I wish the scores had better reflected the fact that we, as a team, try extremely hard to keep everything aboveboard and honest; however, I (and the rest of the MS and HS Pilgrimage teams) certainly respect MSOs decision on this matter and wish NBMS the best at nationals.
