|
Re: GP, Ramming, and Practice
People have taken my original statement out of context. I never once said that defense during practice matches was bad. I used terms like "hard contact defense" and "hardcore physical defense". I even explicitly said that testing of defensive systems is fully acceptable. I agree, defensive bots do need practice, and you do need to simulate real game actions.
BUT, you should not have to deal with some of the more physical play that may be acceptable during the qualification and elimination matches. Issues like pinning, ramming, tipping, and robot damage should never come into play during the practice matches. Teams should not have to worry about being essentially pinned onto their own ramp by another robot. Many teams are not designed to go on and off the ramp easily, if at all. I have seen multiple cases during practice matches of teams getting shoved onto their ramp, and because their design inhibits them from getting off the ramp properly, they lose the remainder of that practice match (in addition to the time where they were being shoved onto the ramp).
It is un-gracious, and un-professional to essentially eliminate a teams testing time by playing strong physical defense on them. Off-field and practice field testing are never the same as on-field testing, for many various reasons, even aside of the presence of other robots. Many teams do not possess full scale fields to test on, and many regionals do not have full practice fields either. They both often just possess a segment of the field with key scoring elements on it. This does not allow you to test certain autonomous and driving funtions, and even some long range shooters.
__________________
Being correct doesn't mean you don't have to explain yourself.
|