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Originally Posted by Dave Flowerday
I think the reason we started to see a proliferation of wedges in the past few years is because the ramming rules were rarely enforced. With larger and larger motors being added to the kit, it meant that teams who chose to use a "defensive" strategy of pushing and ramming were able to do more damage than in the past.
I understand there was misuse of wedges and I assume that's what led to this rule, but in some ways I'm disappointed. If a team is able to bolt 4 (or 6) motors onto a chassis and have a primary strategy of pushing others around, it seems only fair that another team can choose to take away that advantage by eliminating a pushing surface so that they can try to score points. I'm worried that with 6 very powerful motors available in the kit this year that the "no wedge" rule will tip the scales heavily in favor of robots designed solely to harass other robots. Hopefully FIRST tightens down the screws a little bit and really enforces the "no ramming" rule - pushing, blocking, etc. are fine, but backing up many feet and then running full-tilt into another robot repeatedly isn't cool (and yes, this happened last year at more than one regional).
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last year a robot from another alliance with a wedge style robot rammed our robot full speed from the side, tipping us onto our side, in finals no less! Needless to say, the refs never called either of the rule violations (tipping with a simple machine, ramming at full speed) and we did not go any further in finals. I hope this no wedge rule is enforced if it is in place.