Re: Abilities of the top teams at a regional?
 

Except you can't really play defense on the ball itself outside of the goalie zone.

Re: Abilities of the top teams at a regional?
 

Why not?

Until alliances become proficient enough to keep the ball off the ground, I don't see why any opposing bot can't just ram the ball in some random direction.

Re: Abilities of the top teams at a regional?
 

That wouldn't be inadvertent bulldozing would it.

Re: Abilities of the top teams at a regional?
 

But this game is not like "recent times" - not at all. In most FRC games, even if you completely shut down one robot on an alliance, the other two can still collect tons of game pieces and outscore you. In 2014, there is only one game piece. Knock it away, or stop the robot holding it, and the other alliance is not scoring, at all. If you can play effective defense with 1 robot, or even with 2 robots, you have the advantage.

Re: Abilities of the top teams at a regional?
 

It would be intentional bulldozing, but I don't think that counts as posession of the opposing alliance ball. Just ramming it as you drive along the field is not 'carrying' , not 'herding' becauses it's not repeated, not 'launching' because it's not via mechanism in relation to robot, and not 'trapping' because once you hit it you're gone, you're not shielding it.

Re: Abilities of the top teams at a regional?
 

I think is better to play defense against the bot than the ball and not take chances on a penalty. If you think about it preventing a robot from passing or receiving in the intended direction accomplishes much the same purpose as deflecting the ball.

I think this year will emphasis the role of a "guard" more so than previous years. The 3rd robot can play a role "guarding" a pass between robots 1 & 2 and so on. And then robots 1 & 2 guarding robot 3 while is shoots/scores. It is possible to productively play total offense.

It will be interesting to watch how different strategies evolve in the early weeks.

Re: Abilities of the top teams at a regional?
 

Note the italicized part, which was added in a team update. You can launch opposing balls in any desire direction as long as you don't use a moving part to do it.

Re: Abilities of the top teams at a regional?
 

The entire robot could be considered a moving "part" to some interpreters.

Re: Abilities of the top teams at a regional?
 

Or make the mistake of hitting the ball a couple times in quick succession and having a referee interpret (incorrectly or not) the actions as herding. That is a big ball and there are possibly several robots in close proximity.

I'm not saying this is so - just that playing the robot, as a rule, might keep drivers from inadvertent penalties.

Re: Abilities of the top teams at a regional?
 

If a team has to do this in order to ensure a clean shot.............well honestly, that's taking too long to make a shot.

Re: Abilities of the top teams at a regional?
 

Unless these interpreters managed to break the laws of physics, I think they might have a tough time arguing that the robot is in motion relative to the robot.

Re: Abilities of the top teams at a regional?
 

^ That would be taking relativity to a whole new level...

Re: Abilities of the top teams at a regional?
 

This probably falls under the category of deflecting, since it's a single hit to the ball.

Re: Abilities of the top teams at a regional?
 

While the robot is indeed a moving part, it is not moving with respect to itself. I personally think a single clean hit would be legal "deflecting" but I would be concerned about G11 - "intentionally ejecting" the ball from game-play.