Re: Using Discs to Block Full Court Shooters
 

You little... Spoilsport! :p

In all seriousness, I think this would have been a pretty good YMTC topic, and definitely a good one for Q&A to answer. IMO, right now, there is nothing forbidding this strategy. After Q&A speaks, there may be an interpretation or rule to do that--but if they don't put one out now, there may be some few disc-type blockers popping up this weekend from alert competitors.

Re: Using Discs to Block Full Court Shooters
 

Probably the difficulty in getting a colored disc into a stable gripper from a hp slot rather than preloading it by hand prematch. That would be a decent engineering deal rather than a morning addition

Re: Using Discs to Block Full Court Shooters
 

I've taken your signature to heart!

Though given how slow the GDC has been with Q&A this late in the season, the YMTC option may be the faster one :P

Re: Using Discs to Block Full Court Shooters
 

Only issue I can think of is if the disc you're holding breaks, Refs might not like you destroying game pieces.

Re: Using Discs to Block Full Court Shooters
 

The best solution I can think of off-hand would be to put a claw on a lead-screw, and having some way of relaxing the claw just enough that you can kick the Frisbees out with a pneumatic cylinder without dropping the them.

Which sounds like a modified Logomotion bot, not a modified Ultimate Ascent bot.

Re: Using Discs to Block Full Court Shooters
 

Since there's no rule that says discs count as part of the robot for certain purposes, there's no good reason to believe that this is an exception. (Do discs count as they're being ejected? Do they count when they're in the goals?) It should be 100% permissible.

And as for next year, if FIRST wanted to kill all the interesting, unexpected strategies, they might as well simplify their effort and just make the next game robotic dressage. I trust it won't come to that.

Re: Using Discs to Block Full Court Shooters
 

I object to this thought. We should let tall full court shooters roam free - they are, after all, a thing of beauty!:p

In all seriousness, though...

I don't see using a disk to effectively increase your height as being an issue. However, you had best have a good grip in it as most FCS will send their disk with some power. Other solutiosn might be easier to pull off.

However, if you increase the perimeter, you would have to be careful about bumps in the protected feeder zone. I suspect that contact with the held Frisbee would still be considered a violation of G30 as it would violate the spirit of a protected zone.

Re: Using Discs to Block Full Court Shooters
 

I think that FIRST tries very hard to prevent chokehold strategies in their games, and that the rules were written with full-court shooters and blockers for those shooters in mind.

So (a) I believe this would be 100% legal, and (b) I don't think that the GDC would look at it and think, "Oh, no! We missed something!"

Re: Using Discs to Block Full Court Shooters
 

This brings up a good question, who is destroying the disc? The robot holding it, or the robot shooting discs at it at a very high velocity? I think the burden falls on the full court shooter to not shoot at things that they shouldn't shoot at.

Then G18-1 exists...

Re: Using Discs to Block Full Court Shooters
 

I know what you mean about how the Field Reset Crew doesn't like Frisbees being destroyed.

Re: Using Discs to Block Full Court Shooters
 

I well remember being afraid of you blocking our shots

Re: Using Discs to Block Full Court Shooters
 

Q&A is in:

Q623 Q. Do DISCS under the active control of a ROBOT count towards the limits defined by the PLAYING CONFIGURATION? STARTING CONFIGURATION?
A. No. No.

Not surprised but I wish I had thought of the idea earlier and made a robot designed to be 70" in the opponent's auto zone. Also a robot that ferries discs.

Re: Using Discs to Block Full Court Shooters
 

Since you get three frisbees at the start, you could try and wedge the third frisbee in between the first two, and increase your effective height even more.