[PayneTrain]

I've actually had a casual interest in FRC (I wasn't in FLL either) before I joined a team in 2008. I recall (can't cite the rule, that part of the game manual is lost in the FIRST website) there being a rule where the poof balls, the second most nonviolent game piece in the modern era (behind moon rocks) had a set velocity limit.

Working with strategy and design for this game, I was shocked there was no velocity limit. Not only is a full court capability in range for a lot of teams, but this game piece is as rigid, if not more rigid, than the tetras, and we are allowed to whir these pieces 10 feet high and 50+ feet across. In testing videos for both 422 and 2614, you can see the frisbees being shot from at least 10 yards a way and still audibly banging into the back wall. As someone who spends a lot of their time behind the glass or at least in the field area, I'm not thrilled. As an attendee of regionals where there is about 2 feet between the stands and the field barriers, I hope they block off some rows.

It's all fun and games until we get blood spilt on the field or in the stands by a game piece. Seriously. It would not be fun after that. FIRST would quickly become not fun.