[Herodotus]

I completely agree that you shouldn't blame your losses on the rules. But I don't think most people are doing that. What disheartens me is not when I get these penalties, that happens, but when everyone is collectively getting enough that "Who has more penalties?" has become a MAJOR question to be asked at the end of a match.

If penalties are deciding not a few, not some, but many matches it would seem to me there might be a little bit of a problem with the rules. You can say that it is a challenge, but the challenge should be in playing the game, not in simply trying to keep from getting penalties. And I would say putting that trackball over the overpass is quite a challenge as it is. It is completely unfair for the teams to try to blame loses on a rule, it is still their job to try to follow it and to not get penalties. But we should still be free to discuss the rule itself like the intelligent, civilized human beings we are so we can maybe discover why so many people don't like the rule. It can't hurt to discuss these things.

Comparing this to landing rovers on Mars is a bit excessive. FIRST is still a sport, a game. It needs to be challenging AND fun.(and in my opinion it still is, even with G22.)

I dunno, I guess I'm just trying to say people shouldn't have an issue with simply discussing the rule. Though I agree that some take their complaints quite a bit too far.