Quote:
Originally Posted by TubaMorg
Here is the most important point of this discussion. If the rule were changed then just as many penalties would be called because teams would knowingly cross back partially but sometimes cross too far.
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Obviously we have no way of knowing without actually changing the rule, but I disagree with this. In the current state you get a penalty for going even an inch across the line. I will be honest, I have never driven a FIRST robot in a competition and I was only on the drive team for one match (I was sick as a dog and after one practice match decided that being on the drive team was not helping anything), however I have a very strong feeling that for most drivers, seeing exactly where their robot is with respect to that line and making sure the corner of their bumper does not cross it when maneuvering around traffic on the far side of the field with the lane divider in the way is probably very difficult. I think giving them two to three feet of wiggle room would definitely result in less penalties than we are seeing so far.
Also, I wanted to address something that has not yet popped up, but I know will in this thread sooner or later. I know that someone is going to come in and say that it is the first day of week 1 regionals and that drivers will get better as the weeks go by. Well, according to
this, for 75% of teams, things won't get any better. There drivers will not have any more practice than the drivers we are seeing rack up the penalty points.