I think Woodie said it best.
 

I believe Woodie's analogy in the kickoff best describes the type of contact that will be allowed in this year's game

"Blocking and tackling are legal, Facemasking and clipping are not"

Something to that effect.

From what I have seen in the 2000 game, the general rule of thumb is, if the action's intent is to,

-score points for your team
or
-prevent the other team from scoring points

it would be a legal maneuver.

Pinning would be legal under these rules because it prevents the other team from scoring points. (10 second rule applies so that the game does not stagnate)

don't try to rip out the other team's electronics to stop them though, that would be facemasking.

Just my interpretation of the rules, I don't think we have ever encountered any problems with that logic.

On that note, I would like to remind all team to

PLEASE HAVE BUMPERS.

the crunch of metal on metal is no fun.

Anvils don't need bumpers ;-)
 

We are not planning on having a bumper at this time. But, we may change our minds.

Joe J.

"Anvils don't need bumpers ;-) "

That about sums up my philosophy ;)

It states in the manual that it could be quite common for robots to ram each other at full speed, and then FIRST warns us to make the robots robust.