[meaubry]

Justin,
You wrote, the rules state "No pushing high", but if you push low they tip. I feel bad when other robots get tipped over or destroyed because i know how hard teams work to build, but sports are not about offense.

Teams need to play defense and push other robots around. Intentional destruction should not be accepted. Alot of the parents and on-lookers do not want to see a bunch of robots scoring, they want to see some contact. It makes the game fun.[/quote]



FIRST is a competition, but I won't catagorize it as a sport.
I am concerned about your comment that teams "need to play defense and push other robots around" - why do you need to push other robots? Defense doesn't just include pushing around other robots. Often forces from pushing (even low) can destroy robustly built mechanisms, like bending drive trains and wheel axles and frames. The forces are very large and it only gets worse when ramming (dynamic impacts) are allowed.
I for one did not enjoy the FIRST games that turned into pushing matches - I thought that was boring. Give me a high scoring offensive game and I'm happy. Defense for strategy sake is fine - but not when teams robots get broken in the process. Yes, I know that each team should have built the robot more robustly, even FIRST acknowledges that "Triple Play is a highly interactive contact game. They give examples of what is acceptable and what is not

What is missing is something about "applying continuous excessive force", with some of these drive systems pushing perpendicular to many robots drive wheels will destroy them. How robust do you have to build, in order to withstand those kinds of forces?