[Ken Streeter]

Originally Posted by rees2001

I wouldn't think the problem is the robot or the team but the rule. There is no reason such a small infraction should have cost the team 120 points! They never made contact with another robot, they never impeded traffic, they never even hit the wall in hybrid. So why get 120 points in penalties?

If you want teams to succeed don't make rules that penalize you for driving in CIRCLES.

This example is a very interesting scenario. The GDC has repeatedly answered Q&A questions based upon the intent of the rules, not the rules as written. The rule being broken here appears to have been written with the intent of requiring generally counter-clockwise travel around the track. The behavior of this specific robot really only breaks the "intent" of the rule once, but breaks the letter of the rule a dozen times. As a result, they are penalized a dozen times, even though, from my understanding of the intent of the rule, it would have been more desirable for them to have been charged with only one infraction.

I'm not sure how the rules could have been written differently to result in only a single infraction for this episode (without also allowing other undesirable actions) but I think the rules would be improved if scenarios like this one resulted in a single 10-point penalty, rather than separate penalties for each repeated back-and-forth crossing of the line.

I wonder if it would have been within the head referee's discretion to score this as a single penalty, rather than multiple infractions?