[I am currently watching some amazing robotics action
thanks to Wildstang - Team 111 and NASA for providing the webcast to the Midwest Regional.]
Now to the subject at hand:
I was, prior to the first match in the finals at the Midwest Regional, completely undecided on whether or not this rule is an appropriate way to fix the problem. I have come to the conclusion that this rule is ABSOLUTELY NOT an appropriate band-aid for the 'tetras-going-over-the-wall' problem. Here is what happened:
One team on the blue alliance makes the very smart decision to go cap one of the corner goals in red alliance's home row, late in the match. As they are positioning to cap the goal, a blue alliance robot pushes them toward the goal and naturally, toward the wall. Of course, in order to cap the goal, the tetra must be HIGH. And, of course, once they were pushed, the tetra ended up over the wall. They were disabled with something like 10 or 15 seconds left. Thereby
preventing them from capping the corner goal, taking away a row for red, and winning the match.
Rather than having a penalty (in the form of disabling the robot) for play that should be perfectly allowable...
MAKE THE WALL TALLER.
-Andrew
P.S. (Just my 2 cents)
