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Re: Drivers' Meeting
This driver meeting thoroughly disgusted me.
1. Any robot that has anything that extends past the original size constraints (28x38x60) (not in the bumper zone) and touches by accident, coincidences or on purpose, will be penalized. The word incidental is not used in its proper definition in the rules. The definition of incidental touching means a robot will not be penalized if it touches the bumper zone first, stays in contact with the bumper zone, and then touches higher up. True incidental touches WILL STILL BE PENALIZED. That means if you have a dumper, expanding hopper, arm, wing, blocker, stick, tie wrap, something that sticks out by accident, you will be penalized if someone else touches that object.
2. Clarification of pinning rule. You can pin a robot for a few seconds and then you have to back away in any spot except for on top of the ramp. The clarification states that if you push a robot on either ramp, you can hold it forever. This gives big power robots lots of room to do whatever they want. If you were to push a robot up the ramp and say it was sideways you could hold your robot against it the entire match and get the points for the robot as well as "disabling the robot the entire match" Even though this rule may have been in the book the entire year, this is a serious blow to GP.
3. Bumper zone contact, (please if anyone knows this better than I do please comment) As I heard, if a robot pushes another robot in any position as long as the pushing was done in the bumper zone, and the opposing robot flips over, it is not the aggressors fault. Another serious blow to GP. This is giving the ability to easily disable a robot for the entire match. With the sharp ramps this year pushing a robot onto the ramp makes it very easy to tip. This makes me feel like this is turning into a destruction derby.
4. Autonomous and Corner Goals, Intentional ramming in auto is now illegal, and I firmly back this rule and this was a very good one. While that is a great addition, The rule considering robots protruding into a goal is absolutely ludicrous. Obviously the protruding rule was based first on safety. But the consequences are terrible, an entire robot alliance DQ'ed? While we can legally tip other robots. But the real ugly problem comes in with robot aggressors. If a robot were to push another robot into the goal, well you think there would be no penalty or maybe a penalty against the aggressor, right? Wrong. The team that gets pushed in gets the penalty, most people have pieces on their robot that extend more than 3 inches in a certain angle or even straight on. You could so easily push a robot straight into a goal beyond the 3-inch penetration with no effort. This is absolutely ludicrous, allowing robots to disqualify robots on purpose. We might as well have not put the time, effort, blood, and sweat into making shooters and ball handlers.
I would like to take this time to thank all the volunteers and referees that make FIRST possible. One of the great things I have learned this season is how to work with material handling. I am so thankful for that, FIRST basically gave me the opportunity to work on it. I feel with this current rule I believe everything has gone to waste. Many, many of us were not happy. Gracious for all the time the refs put in, but not happy campers. The situation has upset some teams designs so much, some feel that this group of new additions/clarifications have turned FIRST into battlebots. Some go so far as not coming back next year. This is a dire situation that needs to addressed for the sake of Gracious Professionalism. I know we can all do better than this.
-- FIRST team alumni, FIRST team mentor, FIRST volunteer, and FIRST Vex Judge
Peter
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