Quote:
Originally Posted by Gnishi2011
Preface: My team haven't competed yet and I have never been a referee.
I think this rule update makes sense.
The update, from my perspective, says this:
High speed collisions, if accidental and damaging/inhibitive, foul.
Repeated, aggressive ramming, or purposeful high speed collisions, technical foul.
I fail to see how this 'kills defense'. Every sport, from hockey to football, draws the line somewhere for how much 'roughness' is allowed. The intent (to address JVN's point) is to reduce the amount of damage on robots. I think we can all get behind that intent.
High speed collisions and repeated, aggressive ramming are not the cornerstones of good defence. Pushing, blocking and pinning are all still legal under this update. Every sport relies on the subjectivity of the referees to decide what constitutes dangerous play or unnecessary roughness and precedents will eventually be set.
I actually think this ruling empowers referees, more than burdens them. As far as I'm aware they already watch out for dangerous robot-robot interactions. This gives them the chance to penalize clumsy/overzealous yet good-intending teams without the huge 50pt swing.
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+1.
Hockey is probably the sport with the most in common with this year's game in a number of areas. Professional hockey continues to adjust the types of legal interactions between players; what was acceptable 30 years ago (the Goon) is now frowned upon in most places and at most times, because it was overall bad for the game. GDC is attempting to adjust based on what they saw last week. While for most of CD FRC is highly competitive, GDC doesn't just consider the competitive team's needs and wants. There are far more teams who will field a box on wheels with a weak frame and appendages made from stuff that is easily damaged. Can FRC really tell them that they just should've prepared better when the bot is completely destroyed? Discouraged noncompetitive teams will end FRC within a couple of years. And can you, who build competitive bots and field teams that make it into elims regularly, not figure out a way to play against those teams that doesn't require ramming? I bet you can.
