Is this allowed?...(important)

[Phenylethylamine]

Has anyone had a sup turn them away from an event when they came in late because a previous event went overtime?

I've only ever heard of events going overtime at Regionals, where they're more permissible and so would almost certainly let you in late... but if for some reason an event started late at States or Nats, they still have to give you the full time, right? So it's still possible that you could end up late to your next event just because the one immediately beforehand ran overtime.

[sewforlife]

I'm familiar enough with the rules of my events that at this point, it isn't a problem. If I have a specific question about what is or isn't in the rules, I can ask.

Some events' rules are very dense, and it is easy to miss a sentence when reading them. It's possible that someone could have already read the rules and just didn't realize that the answer to their question was there.

This could be a good place to ask first, though- if someone thought there were multiple interpretations of a rule, but everyone else was pretty much certain it was one particular meaning, they could get their question answered here without having to add to the already-overflowing workload of their tournament's coordinator.

Yes, being familiar with the rules is very important. I do mostly building events, and I know almost every spec by heart. I'm prepared to point out a specific line if the event supervisor questions the legality of something.

But the first thing you should do if you have a question is to look through the rules for an answer. You shouldn't just read them once, you should break them down and analyze them. Without doing that, you're going to misguide yourself when preparing for the event.

And yes, this is a good place to ask if you don't understand the meaning of a rule. But if it can legitimately be interpreted in more than one way, it's not worth the risk of assuming. Get a clarification.

But asking things like "how long does my bridge have to be" makes people look careless. Not as bad as "does anyone have tips for xxx," but still isn't worth wasting time over.

lol, just always remember to bring a rules book to spectator events, such as bridge or robo-cross just in case something messes up and the judge lets it pass. in states, another team had done very well for robo-cross, but in the very last minute lost a bolt, and they were dq-ed, because me and my other teammates pointed out in the rules that it says none of the parts of the robot can be left behind.

[Phenylethylamine]

lol, just always remember to bring a rules book to spectator events, such as bridge or robo-cross just in case something messes up and the judge lets it pass. in states, another team had done very well for robo-cross, but in the very last minute lost a bolt, and they were dq-ed, because me and my other teammates pointed out in the rules that it says none of the parts of the robot can be left behind.

Oof... there's nothing unfair/against the rules about doing that, it's clearly perfectly legal to tell the judge that another team did something wrong, but I would still feel a little bad about being personally responsible for another team's DQ, even if it was their fault to begin with.
That's not to say I wouldn't call them on it, though