Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug G
Defensive play is getting a bit out of hand. Partly due to the nature of the game but also how much of it went "unpunished". We were the victims of questionable defensive play at Bayou (that's in another thread) that went without a penalty. The sad thing is because of the lack of penalty calls at that regional, our driver played much more aggressively at our next regional and tipped a robot in the final match. He flat out admitted it to me and didn't feel that bad about it (he knew we were going to lose). Very disheartening.
I don't think defense needs to be there for the "little guy". We're given a kit frame, wheels, and transmissions. Even the little guy needs more of a challenge than to build a defense bot.
Would a more offensive focused game be that bad next year? Some twist on 2001 perhaps. I really enjoyed some of the offensive matches where the whole rack was almost full of ringers and robots rushing back to do the ramps at the end. I found that very exciting, didn't anyone else?
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I have to say I agree with this post. We were at Curie too, and as the competition went on, the play got more and more violent. Let's just say that no one was surprised when the Curie alliance got DQed at Einstein for playing the same way they had been playing. By not calling it, the refs allowed it to escalate. It is hard to say where the line should be drawn, but the rough play exhibited throughout the finals crossed it, especially when it came to ramming and pinning.
Additionaly, the penalties are not big enough to truly prevent this kind of play. At Chesapeake in the elimination rounds, we had another teams arm enter our robot and yank out a wire. For this, they recieved 30 points worth of penalties and a yellow flag. A shame that the unpenalized score was 64-32. When a single ringer can more than cancel out penalties for rough play, the penalties don't mean anything, and they will not deter illegal play.