[craigbutcher]

I am a mentor for a rookie team.

I guess my reaction is very different from those posting here. It seems most wanted more 'contact action'.

Personally I was disappointed at Purdue by all the pushing and banging. Teams were moving halfway across the field and whacking into other robots. At Western Michigan I saw a lot less, and I found it more exciting. Some wonderful robots were really exhibiting their manipulation and drive capabilities. The defense was strategic, not brutal.

Maybe it's just that I like tennis and golf and racquetball where part of the whole game is to see what both you and your opponent can do; you take turns, you applaud a great shot. You don't cough or jog his arm to screw him up.

I loved seeing the high scores. To my mind, it's a lot more challenging and elegant to maneuver and put ingenious manipulation mechanisms to work than to just plow into people and push them around. I have a feeling that's what Dean and Woody were talking about, too--why the game was devised this year to reward scoring more than suppressing others' scoring.

I guess I'm just not really normal.