[Dan Richardson]

When it comes to interpretation of rules, sometimes first does not make enough clarification on things, last year we felt the full brunt of " mis interpretation of the rules "

We had a solid aluminum tether ( or mini bot we called it ) that spanned 28 feet at any time someone could try to run over it for days and not get tangled in it.. and it was strong enough so when we ran over it with a pick up truck it didn't break, but something like that took up about 45 lbs on our bot in which we coulda used something better in a drivetrain , but some of these other teams use basically wires running with a motor and a wheel and ways like 4 lbs for the whole thing but could get entangled easily. We felt a general injustice about the whole ordeal because people started adding these little mouse bots and tape measures and getting same points for something really cheezy that we felt was against the rules.. but it comes to general mininterpretation of the rules, It even happens within the groups of judges and refs, some refs will enforce a rule more than another ( Ie damaging last years carpet ) it got trashed yet not many teams in my division ever got disqualified for it, just issued " warnings after the match "

Its almost like someone forget to send out the memo, clarification of rules has been a big problem in first for a little while now, Every team has the chance to be jipped because they designed for something exactly the way the rule is written and another team is gonna be better off because they bent the rules a little, its all up to refs interpretation

Now concerning team 68 , I don't feel that they violate any rules, also, if they get rammed and they touch the barrier, they will not get disqualified because they did not put themselves into that position the refs will realize that, neither will the refs disqualify the other bot for ramming them, because they said this will be a violent game prepare your robot for such, I think team 68 did an amazing job this year as always, and will be a tough competitor

I think they have a few weakeness that can be exploited by a few bots with certain types of arms and lifting devieces, what I havn't read yet is anybody mentioning holding their arm down, if you can't push their bot out of the way and get 25 points, why not hold the arm down to the floor and make it so they can't get it either just a thought, you have a great bot looks very powerful hopefully we'll see you at nationals