[Andrew Blair]

Originally Posted by ida_noeman

Um... Many people have been talking about blocking shots. Unfortunately for people who have been designing to block shots from the beginning, there is a rule against this - you can't purposely place your robot in front of another robot to block their shots, and there is a 5 point penalty per ball - this can add up fast. So, if many people don't know about this, perhaps it would be good to put your shooting mechanism lower down - you could penalize them massively.
--phobbs

This is a mis-interpretation of the rules.

<G16> Maximum Height - A ROBOT may not extend above 60” above the floor or the ALLIANCE PLATFORM in a stable configuration at any time during a match. Each violation shall result in a penalty of 5 points per occurrence or 5 points per ball shot or ball blocked during the occurrence, whichever is greater. ROBOTs designed to violate this rule are not allowed. For example, a ROBOT that extends a blocking device in front of the center goal will be disqualified. Transient conditions that may cause a diagonal dimension of the robot to momentarily exceed the 60” height restriction – such as during a tipover or when climbing onto the ALLIANCE PLATFORM – are not subject to this rule. The one exception to the height restriction is provided in rule <R13> (flag rule).

The rules state that when your robot stably exceeds 5' tall, you will be penalized by 5 points. The second part of the rules state that while in the state of being over 5' tall, if you block any shots, you will be penalized for every blocked shot. The idea behind this rule is that, if you exceed 5', but do no harm, you will only be docked 5 points. If you exceed 5' and block shots, you have done harm, and you will be penalized more severely. There is no rule against blocking shots with your robot while it is within the proper size constraints.