[Al Skierkiewicz]

OK, I feel the need to jump in here.
When ever an inspector notices something out of the ordinary whether during final inspection or during match play, it is important to bring it to the lead inspector. In most cases, the lead working with the head refereee will come to a decision on the best way to handle it. Referees on the field have brought things to my attention at every event I have worked. Inspectors cannot find everything, myself included.
As to the "silly" rules, I don't believe there are any. Would I do things differently, perhaps. The rule book puts some constraints on your robot design to give you added "real world problems" to challenge you, your robot and your drivers. Is it possible for a robot team to intentionally break the rules, of course, it is human nature. Team mentors need to keep their teams on track and within the rules, that is their solemn duty in this organization. Throughout life we need to ask ourselves the hard questions, if we don't answer honestly, where will we be? The same holds true here. When faced with "I can do this and no one will know" the answer better be "NO, I can't!". It is not teaching the students on your team or other teams the correct way to live their lives.
Sanddrag, I truly believe that if you had brought it to the Lead Inpsector, they would have been able to help the team become compliant and play in some manner. I have been astounded at how many teams read through the manual but miss so much, this year in particular.
Adhesive use is another manner, the people at the top don't want teams to become lazy and use tape. Using electrical tape for team numbers is acceptable and has been for years, hence the 3/4" stroke, the same size as tape.
Finally, FIRST has gone out of their way to provide a variety of documentation to help teams get through inspection, the current documents are at Rev E for robot inspection. Every team should have their students go through this checklist before bringing the robot for inspection. It is unfortunate but teams may still pass at one event and be called out at another event for the same device. Expect the inspections at Championship to be more thorough than the regionals.