Re: Rough Play in Rack N Roll
 

In Colorado the refs were fairly judicious with the penalties. The most common penalty was teams forgetting to get out of the end zone during the endgame. No yellow flags, but since most of the matches were fairly low scoring those penalties tended to sway the game. Even though at our regional the game was mostly defensive, not many of the teams had enough mass on their robots to really do a lot of damage to each other. The most damage I saw was from teams going up ramps or lifts and falling off.

There was a fun bit where we were partnered with team 1375 who had a ramp, and team 1977 who's arm had bent/broken early in the day, they were playing exclusively defensive with their omni drive :D, surprisingly they did quite well at getting in between opponents and the rack. Since they had omni, they couldn't climb the ramp, but we really needed that 30 point bonus so our team agreed to try and push them up.

Last 20 seconds of the game, 1375 deploys the ramp, they line up at the base, we come up behind, we tap them, the crowd cheers, they go, up, they go up... and then we push them a little too hard to the side and they slam almost upside down, straight into the carpet, their omni wheels in the air spinning wildly.

We felt really bad about it, but they thought it was really funny, joked about perhaps we might have bent their arm back the other way so it might start working again. All ends well I guess :)

The big robot on the regional winning alliance (1583), which was basically just a box frame with a GIANT extra tall/long diamond plate ramp, they did very well at defensive, probibly the most aggressive team on the field, many robots got quite a beating from them, but it was all good because they were so gracious about helping them repair the damage afterwards.

Colorado Regional is always a treat.

-Chris

Re: Rough Play in Rack N Roll
 

I'm inclined to think, based upon its widespread success this year, that the best offense is a good defense and a solid 2 @ 12 ramp design for the end game. But that's a debate for another thread.

If FIRST wants to eliminate defense, they can write it into the rules, but they haven't the past 2 years. They did so in 2005, and all that year really boiled down to was was the offensive powerhouses gaining more ranking points as the lesser-equipped offensive teams tried their best to keep up with the scoring but ultimately failed. Not having a viable defensive option, they were left with little else to do. I applaud FIRST and the GDC for providing multiple scoring options this year (tubes and ramp/lifts), as well as the presence of defense, which present different levels of design challenge that are accessible to any team.

Defense levels the playing field and makes a game more accessible and exciting for E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E. That includes the practice day. I thank the GDC for recognizing its importance this season and hope they continue to permit its existence in future game designs. I also implore the refs to maintain a healthy balance between offensive and defensive gameplay on the field, including on Thursday, so that all teams can enjoy employing their robot strategies without fear of damage or abuse.