Quote:
Originally Posted by Cory
Is the team who is trying to score points in hybrid by effectively completing the task at hand going to be penalized for ramming a team that quite clearly intended to do nothing more productive than ruining the hybrid routines for the other alliance?
|
I am definitely in the camp for letting the teams who have the prowess to write amazing autonomous modes strut their stuff. The best of the best should be allowed to showcase their talents to everyone, and I am sure everyone is equally anxious to see what these teams have come up with. However, to suggest that teams that are not quite at that level sit idly by and let their opponents rack up points seems a bit unfair.
If your robot was not able to circle the track, or at least not able to circle the track as many times as your opponent, are you going to let them drive around untouched? Isn't that just giving up before you've even started?
In an ideal situation, of course everyone is crossing as many lines as they possibly can. Unfortunately this is not always possible for all teams, so they are forced to adapt. If a team cannot cross four lines, then is it not equally as beneficial for them to stop their opponent from crossing four lines? Is this not the kind of situation that teams consider at the beginning of the season?
Do we want to try and do the scoring, or do we think that we are more suited, more capable of building a very good robot that can limit the number of points our opponent scores?
Offense tends to look more glorious on the field, but it is often a defense that can give teams an edge. This year, the rules seem to be written to provide an advantage to the robots that are out to score. Despite this, teams that were not so adept at scoring showed this weekend that there are ways to play defense.
Although, impeding seems like an ideal defensive measure, the rules seem to indicate that the action of impeding an opponent is illegal. So what does that leave teams that are not able to lap during hybrid to do? What does that leave teams that are able to lap far fewer times than their opponent to do?