[s_forbes]

(Changing the line violation to work like that would allow people to go backwards and remove balls from the overpass behind them, which isn't allowed by the current rule. This may be why it hasn't been modified as everyone has suggested.)

But back on to the topic of cornering trackballs: it seems to me that this is something that was originally anticipated by the game designers, hence the lack of a rule to prevent it. But remember, if you pin both of your opponent's balls with two of your alliances' robots, you effectively have only one robot on the field that is doing anything. The other alliance has three teams that can all run laps while their trackballs are pinned, which will still get them a substantial amount of points!

Unfortunately for the defensive bots, this years game doesn't offer much of an endgame bonus (as compared to 06 and 07), so it is hard to play defense the entire match and pull out a win.