[DougHogg]

Unfortunately, there is a tendency for people who have lost to get upset and start to find fault with everyone but themselves. Reminds me of a book about Tiger Woods. In his youth, if he missed a shot, he would sometimes get angry and throw his club on the ground. His father would ask him, "Who shot that shot? Was it the tree? Was it that bird?".

I watched the final matches and didn't see any rule violations. To me, 469 played brilliantly. In fact, in the pits after the event, our whole team went over to their pit and applauded them.

True, they got caught on 93, but 93 was easy to get caught on.

As for tipping robots, I didn't see teams deliberately tipping anyone. True, I didn't see all the matches, but what I did see was teams playing the game fairly.

In football, if a player is headed for the end zone with the ball, you are allowed to tackle him/her. In FIRST, teams are allowed to prevent other teams from hanging or capping, etc. as long as they don't deliberately try to tip, damage or entangle the other robot.

In the Galileo quarter finals, we were beaten by the aggressive defense of Team 177. Everything they did was within the rules. They were the only team who stopped us from hanging (other than Team 64 who handed us our only qualifying loss by blocking the bar). My response to Team 177 is: Very well played!, great match! (Last year, however, Team 177 repeatedly pushed their hook against the top of our tower, tipping us over the side of the arena, and in that instance, the referee turned off their robot. We have a video of that match.)

This year, FIRST tried to simplify the rules, and simple is good. However I think that in some areas (such as entanglement), we need to build up a body of guidelines over time as other sports do. That refinement helps to clarify things.

There were a couple of questions that relate to this issue in the Q and A system.

ID:
ID: 840
Section: 4.4.3
Status: Answered
Date$@#Answered: 2/24/2004
$@#
Q:
May we tow another robot around, such as a disabled one, given it is done safely? Does this count as entanglement?

A:
You may tow an alliance partner's robot. You may also tow an opponent's robot provided you do not impair its ability to break free. The rules regarding entanglement, damaging, and pinning robots apply.

ID: 257
Section: 5.1
Status: Answered
Date$@#Answered: 1/20/2004
$@#
Q:
Can the robot push and pull other robots?

A:
Yes as long as you do not damage the opponent or the field.

In my opinion, getting caught in 93's net and ripping it would not be a violation of this rule as the net could not be called "robust" and obviously could easily be caught in.