[RoboTigers1796]

Bill brings up some very eye-opening points.
I am highly disappointed to see some of the comments here. Although you may not be intentionally giving this opinion, those who are brushing it off as a silly rule, or looking for ways to justify it with ridiculous examples of manual air pumps- you are defending a robot that won while breaking clearly written rules, and then condoning them after the fact.
We need to remove our personal opinions on these rules, that haven't changed much in FRC for at least 4 years, and simply accept them as rules.
By saying this rule isn't a big deal, you are condoning illegal actions, that gave a team (that competed against most of you here!), an unfair advantage over your own robots.

If you really have an issue with a rule, write a carefully worded letter to FIRST after the season and argue your point for a change in rules the following year. NOT decide to take things into your own hands and decide the rule is dumb so carry on doing whatever you want to do anyway during an already announced FRC season.

Exactly as Dad has said, whether we like them or not, and if we stop trying to pretend we know the intention behind the GDC's decision for the rules they make, we are left with the clear cut realization that in order to fairly compete in FRC, we need to follow all of the restraints they lay out. Despite how much we may disagree with them.
For example, our team didn't LIKE the 8" bumper rule this year, but rules are rules and we complied.
I personally don't LIKE the rule that emphasizes that bumper numbers cant be broken up across an intake opening (how silly is that) but we complied to satisfy the restraints set forth by the GDC for the 2012 game.

What we want and what we like has nothing to do with this situation. The rules that are presented to you in life are just that, rules, and whether we like them or not we follow them or face the consequences. Regrettably in this situation, 522 chose to break the rules even after being informed, just in the rare case they didn't know, and were not faced with any consequences. In fact they were instead awarded for it, with a regional banner.