[2789_B_Garcia]

This change to G28 is aggravating. Over the course of three matches, the top half of our robot was ripped off of our frame because other teams were driving around with their collectors out as we were trying to defend against them, and some of them even appeared to deploy their collector into our frame while there was no ball around to collect. We cited G28, and no penalties were given to the other teams. We got fed up trying to repair our robot and finally just put pool noodles and gaffers tape on it to prevent from accidentally possessing an opponents ball...

Now with the rule change, if another robot damages our robot inside our frame perimeter, we'll be told that our robot's actions were the "catalyst" for the damage because we were playing defense...which means we not only extend beyond our frame perimeter at our own risk, we also drive at our own risk, as well. Last week, we saw debris all over the field, electrical components being ripped out of robots, and now the rules change says that it's our fault if we are playing defense?

I love playing defense, but I don't want to play battlebots, and now it seems that if I'm playing with a robot that has high-scoring capability, I can deploy mechanisms and extend as I wish because if it destroys a defending robot, it was their fault, however, as a defensive-oriented robot with a simple collector, if I extend my collector and it violates the frame perimeter of a high-scoring capable robot, would the same call be made?

I love this game. It was designed for teams like mine. Teams that want to contribute to an alliance, but don't have the manufacturing capability, resources or mentors to pull off some of the powerhouse robots we have seen...and I'm not bitter to any of the teams that can pull it off...our team sees them as sources of inspiration and we learn so much from our interactions with these teams...this years game held so much hope for our team because we interpreted the game such that FIRST had finally gotten coopertition right, and had designed a game in which small teams like us could make a big difference in matches. Now I feel like if we don't drive a solid block of metal on wheels around at our next event, it'll be our fault if anything happens to it.