[Kevin Leonard]

I think some of these are absolutely insane.

Without the zone possession requirement, teams that purposely built their robots so they are able to easily truss from the white zone or the colored zone are penalized.

My suggestions would be:
1) Double the points for a catch- as of right now catching has no place in eliminations matches.
2) Make accidental possession of an opponent's ball not a foul if it's only for a few seconds.
3) Allow inbounders to take the balls whenever they please, but only to inbound a ball when a goal has already been scored.
4) Referee fouls regarding frame perimeter contact more conservatively. No team going to IRI (I think) is going to purposely damage another team's robot. Unless there is an obvious infraction, let the game continue.

Now if we're going to go with some more radical ideas, I have some of those as well:
Option A: During qualification matches, play the game like Jim Zondag suggested- a big shootout with three (or two) balls in play that are marked differently that doesn't take assists into account. This will help guarantee that the best robots take the top seeds. Then, in eliminations, play with all the real rules. All the teams there know how to form alliances that play Aerial Assist- they don't need qualification rounds to get them to know the game.

Option B: During qualification matches, play the game with two balls per alliance that are marked differently, bring in more referees, and play the game with assists. Then, in eliminations, play the game the original way.

I like Option A because it lets the best ball-scoring robots seed up top more easily, then it lets the strategy come out in how alliances are composed in eliminations. It also doesn't crush a team with a bad schedule and bad luck as much.

Anyone think this is a good idea? Or am I just crazy and frustrated by fouls and broken partners?