[JGurnow]

<G24> ARENA Interaction – With the exception of the BALL RETURN and RETURN BARS, ROBOTS may push or react against any elements of the ARENA, provided there is no damage or disruption of the ARENA elements. With the exception of the TOWER, ROBOTS may not grab, grasp, grapple, or attach to any ARENA structure. Violation: A warning will be issued when a ROBOT violates this rule. If the referee determines that the TEAM is disregarding the warning, their ROBOT will be disabled for the remainder of the MATCH.

At the event how 469 handled the getting into position was: going under the tower deploying the wedge/latched to prevent being pushed out. The shifting of the towers was less then that caused by robots hanging. Las Guerillas doesn't touch the ball return and their mechanism meets all 3 inch incursion rules. As for trying to stop them from getting into position I can tell you this, you won't win in a pushing match against 469. They can be an 8-wheel tank drive. They have pneumatic wheels, they have so much grip that they had to get creative with the turning solutions.

The match that our alliance scored 25 points in had 0 balls scored in autonomous. We did however have all 6 of out alliances starting balls in our home zone and were able to take 2 more from the middle zone when crossed that zone. We were mostly cycling 6 of the 8 balls we had in our home zone. The fact of the matter is with only 6 balls cycling human players have a major role in the rate of scoring. The last 2 points of the match were scored after time had expired and balls were still returning to the field, there are 10 seconds after the match where objects in motion are allowed to stop. 25 balls in 130 seconds was a rate of about a ball every 4-5 seconds. We wouldn't have been able to get any where near as high if our alliances human players hadn't worked so hard. I also want to thank all teams human players at Cass Tech for there great work at the district, I didn't see a single penalty caused by a human player during the entirety of the event.

In the final match of the day team 226, the Hammerheads, were the robot defending in our home zone. They were able to stop many of the kicks, they ran into the problem where they had to cross the zone while being blocked by 2960 or 217. We started the cycle going and cleaned up any missed shots. The final score that round was, I believe, 15-1. 469 can score as long as a half of the field is open, there is only a single defending robot in the zone so they couldn't effectively move against a defensive bot.

Thanks for the great alliance at Cass Tech 469 and 2960, looking forward to seeing you at State Championship.