[alphadog0309]

I think recently the whole idea of ranking points has sort of been defeated by games which make it essentially impossible to score for your opponent...

In GOI, you weren't able to get any of your opponents batons and therefore could not score for your opponent to give yourself ranking points, as you could in Quad Quandary!, Face Off!, and Hot Shot!.

This year is slightly better in that you can score balls for your opponents BUT those are a minority of the number of points you can score and therefore will not really help a team that is looking to gain ranking points by scoring for their opponents.

Personally i believe if losing the 40 points from a Basket Grab penalty and scoring points for the opponent is going to eventually help our ranking and possibly make us an alliance captain, I'm all for it. Penalties exist to discourage intentionally ungracious gameplay, such as "hoarding" of balls and opponents crates, and should be weighted as such strategically.

Is there an attitude difference? yes, mostly because games in FTC are so close and committing that penalty more often than not could cost the team a game. Can this be fixed? It's hard to say but personally I think it should be fixed because it discourages unique strategies. I guess the GDC has their own reasons though and naturally I will accept their judgement as being correct.