[Billfred]

Originally Posted by karinka13

I'm not a big fan, because it's a little vague. I mean, it's then up to the judge if a team is being too rough or not, which is much more subjective than before. Not that I'm saying my team is upset that we can't push people around like crazy. I just think it's less defined than before and open to interpretation.

First, the applicable manual:

Originally Posted by Section 9.6.3

<T06> The Head Referee may assign a YELLOW CARD as a warning of egregious ROBOT or
team member behavior. This will occur at the completion of a match, before the field is
reset, and will be indicated by the Head Referee standing in front of the team’s PLAYER
STATION and holding a yellow card in the air. In the first match that a team receives a
YELLOW CARD, it acts as a warning.
<T07> After a team receives a YELLOW CARD, a yellow flag will be placed on their ROBOT at
the beginning of all subsequent matches as a reminder to the team, the referees and the
audience that they have a YELLOW CARD.
<T08> A team will be issued a RED CARD (disqualification) in any subsequent match that they
receive an additional YELLOW CARD. This will occur at the completion of a match,
before the field is reset, and will be indicated by the Head Referee standing in front of the
team’s PLAYER STATION and holding a yellow card and red card in the air
simultaneously. The team will still carry their YELLOW CARD into subsequent matches.
<T09> YELLOW CARDS do not carry forward between qualification matches and elimination
matches. All teams move into the elimination matches with a clean slate.
<T10> If a team is disqualified during a match for a reason other than receiving an additional
YELLOW CARD, they will receive a RED CARD. This will occur at the completion of a
match, before the field is reset, and will be indicated by the Head Referee standing in
front of the team’s PLAYER STATION and hold a red card in the air.
<T11> During the qualification matches, a team that receives a RED CARD will receive zero
ranking points and zero qualification points. The rest of the team’s in their ALLIANCE will
still receive the earned qualification points and ranking points.
<T12> During the elimination matches, a team receiving a RED CARD will cause the
disqualification of their entire ALLIANCE for that match.

After reading the manual, I don't think it's any more subjective than the rules of recent years. If you misbehave while driving, you will get a yellow card. Do it again (or tremendously over the top), you get disqualified. This just simplifies the warning process, and also signals that yes, the refs DID see that. It also signals to me that the team does or did drive rough, which is something I'd want to know when making my pick list.