[EricH]

At Sacramento, there was one particularly agressive robot. (Not us.) We were up against them twice. They lost both times. The first time, they would have won- if they hadn't hit us in the loading zone and thrown us off. The refs initially ignored it, but when our coach complained, they corrected the score. The second time out, the same team fractured some acrylic paneling on our robot. To do that, they had to hit us hard- or fast- enough to climb our defensive wedge on that side and still hit hard. Another robot had a front wedge and was DQ'd for tipping.

My point is, that teams who disobey the rules need a penalty. If FIRST lowers the penalties now, then the first week teams will complain that they had it rough. I say that we just accept the penalties the way they are and try to avoid drawing them.