[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

I don't see much of a return on investment in this.
While you sit there "blocking" the trackball: a. you are not scoring points. b. the other alliance can still be doing laps without the one of their trackballs and continuing to score points, and c. Contact in the bumper zone is still allowed, so long as it's not egregious behavior.
If a robot from the other alliance is trying to push my trackball into a 135^o corner, I'd tell my drivers to just start pushing their robot. No high speed ramming or egregious behavior, just solid bumper-to-bumper contact. With the covers on the trackballs being so slippery, something will give, and I doubt that trackball will stay cornered for very long.
Now if there were 90^o corners on the playing field, this strategy would be much more viable. But with the current field, I can't see it working for very long against a robot with a decent driver and drive train.

Someone forgot to take into account the force if ramming a ball in a corner, and it getting popped.



I'm glad I found this thread.

Here's an example of something that has happened.


Team A traps team B's trackball against the corner consisting of the grated area making the Robocoach's wall & the Lexan players station wall on Team A's lane side.
Team B can not get to their trackball without crossing the Lane Divider in the legal direction, & going around Team A in reverse (illegal way) over the Lane Divider line.
To do this, Team B would get at least one 10pt. penalty.

There is a clear way to go past, so Team A is not technically blocking a lane / impeding traffic. (No Penalty)

Team A pins Team B's ball there for a good 30 seconds while Team B makes an effort to get it by staying around Team A and bumping Team A so they will move away from the ball.

That's not the end of the story though.

Upon Team A finally letting up on the pinning strategy, & pushing it forward over the Lane Divider line, Team B grabs the ball... It's now losing air from being pinned so tightly into the wall.

Team B tries to grab the ball but fails at hurdling the ball as it falls out of their grabber before it is at a height to go over the Overpass & is made inactive on the field.
Now, with a minute or so left in the match, a new ball is made ready at the sidelines, but never put into the arena, and the popped ball sits there just losing more & more air with a new ball nowhere to be found.

Team B loses the match.

Team A is assessed no penalties for any play in question.
(Popped ball, impeding traffic, pinning an opponent's trackball)

Upon waiting for a decision, & seeing the score with Team B losing by a small amount (which a good ball would have been able to compensate for), the match & plays are legally disputed with a Student from Team B & the Head Referee, but no penalties are given to Team A, nor is a rematch granted.


What do you think about pinning a ball now, and the legality of it?

Actually, let's do one of these. Based on the 2008 rules, You make the call!!