[Steve W]

To have a rule without a penalty is rather useless. As many have seen with the robot rules and others that no penalty was expressed, they were not followed. To tell someone that they cannot speed does not stop them. Heck they speed even with penalties. People will always break the rules, penalties are a reinforcement of expectations.

People are saying it isn't fair if your team loses because of penalties to another team on your alliance. If that is so them maybe you shouldn't win when other teams on your alliance score points for your team. The alliances are teams. Teams work together to make the best results that they can. All for one and one for all. You cannot separate only parts of it out. We must always do our best to help other teams work within the alliance so that we can get the best results. I know that we can't pick our partners in Qualifying rounds but we can't always pick who we work with in our life outside of FIRST. Learning to accept that we are a team, working toward a common goal with the resources that we have available is sometimes a huge challenge. It is one that FIRST put there and that is all around in the workforce. How you respond tells what you are made of.