I don't think you can claim credit for this unless you thought of it *at least* 3 years ago....

For the past 3 years that I have helped teams out with First, it ALWAYS come up in our brainstorming sessions.

I welcome you to the swelling ranks of people who have posed this strategy.

as far as i'm concerned, that idea falls in along with everything from EMPs to flame throwers. it's simply a bad idea from the beginning. i know, that if i was a driver, and a team did that to me, as soon as the match was over, i would go and speak to the referees about the legallity of such a device. and when you have about 20 teams complaining that your team is completely negleting the idea of GP, then i'm pretty sure something would be done about it. also, consider what would happen after your first match. apart from everyone booing and throwing stuff (like tomatoes and other rotten fruits) at you, any team that went up against you would do one thing. stop your robot from getting to the driver's station.

that's not too hard, if you think about it. i could make my robot "rush the ramp", come flying across the field in a dead run for the driver's station (my driver's station). then, as soon as i hear, and feel, a huge smash as the robot comes into the driver's station, i turn, and ram you until i can make you move. it's not something i would want to do, but under the circumstances, it seems to be the only good idea at the moment. of course, since your idea of blocking the player station obviously isn't "the best idea ever" i don't think i'll have to worry about the matter much.

true it may be vaugly legal but it would be boring. also very breakable and people would figure out a way to ram into you.

This idea comes up every year. FIRST has ussually responded with something like "You are not allowed to intentionally block your opponents view." It'd be rather silly anywa, and I have a feeling the drivers would respond by bashing your robot into small pieces every chance they got. The whole concept, while not against the rules yet, is against gracious proffesionalism and sportsmanship. I think any team that made a bot like that would feel themselves very unwelcome at a FIRST competion.

Or "accidentally" trip in your pit and take off your drive wheels

I BELIEVE SOME OF THESE ARE GOOD RESPONSES AND THAT IT *MIGHT* SOMEHOW GO AGAINST CRACIOUS PROFESSIONALISM SOMEHOW, THOUGH I DON'T KNOW HOW, BUT I HAVE RULED IT OUT ANYWAYS DUE TO THE FUN FACTOR.
BUT PERSONALLY I HAVE NO IDEA HOW RULE M09 OR WHATEVER WOULD HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THIS IDEA, SINCE THE WALL IS A FUNCTIONAL PART OF THE BOT, AND NOT A DECORATION. ALSO I WOULD LOVE THE ODD'S OF LETTING MY ALLIANCE BEING FULLY FUNCTIONAL EVEN IF THEY CAN ONLY MOVE AGAINST TWO BOTS THAT DON'T KNOW WHAT DIRECTION THEY'RE GOIN OR WHAT THEY'RE DOING AT ALL.
AND THIS DESIGN IN NO WAY INTERFERES WITH RADIO CONNECTION OR CONTROL OF THE ROBOT EITHER, AND I BELIEVE IF THIS IDEA WAS USED ONCE THEY WOULD PROBABLY BAN IT AND IT WOULD NOT BE ALLOWED IN THE FUTURE BY A SIMPLE RULE CHANGE LIKE "CANNOT INTENTIONALLY HAVE THE STRATEGY TO BLOCK OPPONENETS VISION." BUT SINCE THAT RULE DOESN'T EXIST YET I DON'T SEE HOW U COULD DO THIS
AND WHOEVER SAID KNOCKING OUT OPPONENTS BINS WOULD LOSE U RESPECT, ALL I GOTTA SO TO THAT IS..... WHAT???
I THINK THAT WOULD BE VERY GOOD, I KNOW IF I SAY A ROBOT THAT COULD PREVENT THE OTHER TEAM FROM SCORING I WOULD COMPLETELY LOVE TO BE PARTNERED WITH THEM AND I WOULD HAVE PROFOUND RESPECT FOR THEM. JUST LIKE FOOTBALL OR OTHER SPORTS, DEFENSE IS JUST AS IMPORTANT IF NOT GREATER THAN THE OFFENSE. EXAMPLE: TAMPA BAY BUCANEERS HAVE NO OFFENSE, YET THEY ARE COMPETEING IN THE NFC CHAMPIONSHIP TO THE SURPRISE OF NO ONE AND ONLY IGNORANT PEOPLE DON'T RESPECT THEIR D.

hmm.... what are u people thinking???!?
"accidentally" breaking any robot is a way grosser violation of FIRST than anything my idea even flirts with. And, BTW three years ago this idea would have been completely usless with the co-opertition game. ur team should learn what and when to brainstorm.
And i seriously doubt that your robots autonomous mode could beat mine in getting to your drivers station. where yours has to go around, then up the ramp, find its way down, and then wait till autonomous period is over so u could find where our robot is heading, where as ours just has to go about 20 ft straight forward and boom, done.
Also, i just don't understand why your robot with arms and other accesories would simply be able to push us out of the way without us being able to fight back.... in fact, the way i remember it, things seemed to be quite opposite at last years competition. Robots being pulled sideways, wheels spinning uselessly against carpet not geting a catch on friction, even the occasional robot arm being ripped off... yeah, we did that, no exxageration. the only bot in the whole competition last year that could push us was beaty. So why would it neccassarily be different this year???
anyways, ur completely missing the point, even if u did find a way to move us, then what stopps us from moving back??? I guess u could keep fighting with us for position but if your doing that than we are still accomplishing half of our goal by keeping your team occupied and then it would be just our alliance team against your alliance team.... still even odds, and thats if us succeed in finding us without being able to see us in comparison to your robot, and then being able to move us.... i just don't se the problem.
and as for it not being durable??? u can make pretty much anything pretty durable, you could make it outta 1/4 inch alluminum or something. sure it could very well could brake a couple times..... so we fix it, duh.
And once again as for the Accidental braking it.... our robot last year didn't brake once.... even minor things. Seriously, nothing. not in regionals or nationals. i don't think u could brake a thing on that robot without some kinda sludge hammer or power tool.... and seriously, it would take a sludge hammer... a ball peen wouldn't do a thing. I think we know how to build durable things.

Please don't use caps-lock, and spell check your comments. It's just good manners.

didn't you get the memo writing everything in caps makes what a person says correct

Let's put it this way.

How would you feel if someone did that to YOUR alliance?

THAT's what Gracious Professionalism is all about.

yes, i would me kind of mad and peeved that i couldn't do anything...... but get this
THAT IS THE NATURAL REACTION TO LOSING

or did you not know that?

And have u ever gone up against beaty? its the same thing, u get meat and there is nothing you can do about it. In fact, beaty allows you even less options. I am a third year driver on our team so i think i have a good idea of how it would feel, and i can't see how it would be worse than being beat by one of beaty's bots.

and BTW im not applying for a job interview, just trying to get a message accross, i really don't care about caps lock, spelling, or grammer.

Even though you are not applying for a job interview, bad grammar hampers your attempt to convey your point.
Anyway- My question to you is this: Let's say that your strategy is not banned this year and your team were to build this obstacle. Do you really want to win that way?
Yes, you probably would win, but this competition is not about winning. Yes, winning is nice, but would you really feel good knowing that you did not compete in the spirit of competition?
I know I would much rather lose to an alliance in a heated match than win by causing their robot wander around on the field. Winning or even losing in a close match is much more exciting for everybody to watch than a complete blowout. Who would really want to watch a super bowl where the score is 50-0?
Just some thoughts
~Andy

I originally made the "accident" comment as a joke...

The idea of Gracious Professionalism to me is to exhibit a behavior that helps as many people as possible in the most efficiant and self-less way. Your "Best Idea Ever" idea isn't the best because it does nothing for the promotion of FIRST. The "Best Idea" should be one that a team can take to a robot demo and inspire people who wouldn't dream of going into engineering, robotics, etc.

I would be disappointed to see a robot wander over to a wall and put up a shield. Big deal, holy engineering batman.

And as to the 3 years ago, that was the Trough year. That was a 2 v 2

That's an interesting idea.. You'd probably get some success in the qualifying rounds- but in the elims your robot wouldn't be as effective

anyone remember Chief Delphi's bot three years ago? It would climb on the troughs and crawl from side to side, stealing balls- it was obviously the best robot in the competition, but I heard that they lost because of defense- even the best bots can lose..

why would you need to go under the bar with that strategy? (You start on the opponents drive side