A Lone Dazzler

Wanted to discuss an OR that happened today in 2015 Champs.

What happened:

OR Challenge: The lead jammer did not have their helmet cover on when the call-off happened. Therefore it should be an illegal call-off and that jammer should get a penalty pursuant to 5.13.14.

OR Result: The lead jammer lost her helmet cover due to gameplay and not an intentional removal of the helmet cover. The no-call stands. OR lost.

Givens:

I am not at this game (only listening on WFTDA.tv and watching the stats on repo-stats.wftda.com).

The HR of the game has a more intimate understanding of the rules than I do currently (as per the WFTDA certification process).

I am not working this game so in-the-moment decisions should be upheld explicitly. This means I’m not arguing the finding/result for the game, I’m just discussing the rules as written.

Discussion:

Rule 2.4.7 (s2): “If the helmet cover is removed by an opponent’s action or in the course of natural game play, the Jammer may replace the helmet cover and regain Lead Jammer status.”

The verbiage “regain” Lead Jammer status can be construed as the Lead Jammer status is no longer active on the Jammer whose helmet cover is removed for the aforementioned reasons (opponent’s action, gameplay). One could interpret this ruling that while you could “regain” Lead Jammer status (and, as such, the Lead Jammer abilities in 2.4.1, namely call-offs) after the helmet cover is back on the helmet, but the status is no longer “gained” while it is off.

HOWEVER

In Rule 2.4.8 (s1): “Once a Jammer has been declared Lead Jammer, Lead Jammer status is retained for the duration of the jam unless the status is forfeited.” It goes on to state the opposite sorts of things from 2.4.7 would render a Lead Jammer status declaration forfeit (2.4.8.1-2.4.8.3).

So. One can be declared Lead Jammer, and that status stays “retained,” so… Is the verbiage in 2.4.7 rendered null? Or is the specificity of “regain”ing the status of Lead Jammer intentional and that no matter what the reason, a jammer may not call off the jam while the helmet cover is off their head for any reason? There is no statement about “inactive Lead Jammer status,” just “inactive jammer position.” So there’s a slight contradiction due to verbiage and explicit word usage between the rules.

Though I couldn’t really compare the 5.13.14 penalty with others that one can rectify, for two reasons: (1) we penalize cutting as soon as it happens, at the point of establishment of position on the track (unless that gets rethought at some point in the future), so it’s not the only one, and (2) the difference being that the jam ends because of this, so nobody can score, so it has a LOT of impact if happening when it’s not supposed to. There’s no precedent in rules about a jam ending and restarting from the “called off in error” point.