I agree the lil extra push was probably not in good taste, but it didn't really matter. The mouse was crushed like a tin can practically on impact from my viewing angle. Also, it is pretty tough to see around those goals when you're moving around so I'd give the drivers (who from experience are nice people) the benefit of the doubt in their intentions. Personally I can't wait to see the mouse souped up at Nats. It's a great idea, and from what I saw at LI it works really well.
FIRST is returning back to a lil Battlebots style this year, which is somewhat disappointing. We were more than slightly annoyed when a wedge bot essentially tipped us over at LI (the only thing that saved us was our goal grabber). When the team continued, pushing us outside the course, we were screaming at the refs. What really disappointed me was one ref's reasoning. He thought that yes there was intent to tip us by going under so far (there was quite a bit of damage on the underside from their goal grabbing spikes), and that the team most likely deserved to be DQed under rule three. The reason why they weren't? "I interpret the rules, and I say they aren't". I swear I was going to throw the rule book at him. With some minor venting against a wall, we let it go and were quite content on just winning instead
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The moral of the story: such tactics can maybe win a match, but playing by the rules will win the competition. Hope mighty mouse is back in action soon.