[mathking]

To me, it seems pretty obvious that FIRST is looking at the 10 point penalty and not being disabled as a lesser infraction, allowing the refs, at their discretion, to say "This was not a really bad infraction" and allow the robot to continue play. So I don't think this will in any way encourage even more dangerous play by teams. I think it is meant to be more fair and not disable a team who might spin around too fast and "break the plane" briefly and inadvertantly.

As for the other rule change, I do think that it is unfair to penalize the stacking team if another robot pushes them and causes the stack to tumble over. But it is also unfair that legal defense can cost you a penalty. So there may be no perfect rule. It would not bother me to have the refs decide whether one alliance was at fault and penalize them for descoring tetras.

It might be good for the refs to also be able to say "Both sides were at fault so the tetras are simply descored without penalties." I have seen several matches with two teams trying to score at the same time and jointly causing the tetras to fall. I have also seen an offensive team try to shove past a defender, get off balance and descore a stack. Should the defender be punished there? In most of the cases of descoring tetras I have watched, it was pretty obvious who was at fault. So why not penalize in such cases and have no penalties otherwise?

The main thing needed is consistency. And this only comes with experiences on the part of the refs and clear rules from FIRST. Teams should at least know going in to a match what is likely to get them penalized. Particularly if perfectly legal actions can lead to big penalties due to circumstances.

It was interesting to me to see how much more consistent the refs were at Buckeye than at Pittsburgh. I don't think this is because the refs were bad in Pittsburgh, just that there had been a couple of weeks of additional competition so more experience and more clarification of the rules. So I am quite optimistic about the Championships.

If there are consistent calls, defense can and will still be a very important part of the game. In both Pittsburgh and Cleveland, skillful defense in the final altered the outcome of matches. Rather than shoving a good stacker away from a goal the defenders simply prevented the stacker from getting to a goal in the first place. (By the way, kudos to 279 for the nifty shift in strategy in finals round #2 at Buckeye. After being stifled in round #1 they made a little change and were off and stacking before the defenders knew it.)

A quick side (but important) note: I also want to praise the number of teams I have seen who had legitimate gripes about calls made in the game who shrugged off the gripes and showed sportsmanship. In particular 365, 808 and our Pittsburgh alliance partners in 47. The sportsmanship demonstrates that gracious professionalism is alive and well on your teams.