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Unread 09-03-2005, 14:40
AJunx AJunx is offline
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#0619
Team Role: College Student
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: VA
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So many robots...

I must admit that I am surprised at the number of people who believe that the penalties are too high. There is one thing, that I don't think has yet been mentioned, that could shed some light on why this issue has been somewhat divisive.

After reading over the responses, it seems to me that most of the comments from the "penalties are too high" crowd are all going in a similar direction with regards to why they believe the penalties are too high:

In past years (except in 2001), you had ONE alliance partner. Your team was essentially 50% responsible for not earning penalties. This year, you have TWO alliance partners, and your team is, correspondingly, 33.3% responsible for not receiving a penalty. This, I imagine, is the hang-up.

The scores in the regional competitions thus far have proven the 30-point penalty to be a so-called "kiss of death." Discontent over the strict penalties has arisen because your team (who worked so hard to build a robot that could score tetras) can only be accountable for itself, leaving 66.6% of the responsibility for avoiding penalties to your alliance partners. This might even be acceptable, if you could instruct your alliance partners to avoid penalties and be completely certain that they would do so. However, this certainly is not the case. No one wants to have a victory thrown away because one of their two alliance partners didn't follow the rules.

Had the penalties in previous years been as high as they are this year, relative to the overall scores, I think that most people wouldn't consider the penalties to be too high.
-When a team is 50% accountable (as in past years) for the penalties incurred upon that alliance, the team feels as if they are in control. Penalties can and will be avoided.
-When a team is only 33.3% accountable, however, it seems like they are just in a crapshoot as to whether or not their alliance ends up with a killer penalty. I really hope neither of my alliance partners does anything dumb.

That said, I still think the penalties are appropriate because everyone knows how important it is that they be avoided. Even if you feel that your team is in a crapshoot, the odds are stacked in your favor because both of your alliance partners know how important it is to avoid penalties.

-Andrew