[Chris Hibner]

If my memory serves me right, rules like this stem from the 2003 game. In that game you could build stacks of boxes for big scores. The problem was that it was really difficult to build the stacks, but really easy to knock them down. The result was that only a couple teams even bothered to build a robot that could make stacks.

A lot of feedback came in to say that the game would have been played more like the GDC intended if the game had a rule that limited defense by making it a penalty to knock down already built stacks. Since that year, the GDC has almost always put in some rules limiting where or when defense could be played.

With all of that in mind, the rule should stay as is. Many teams designed their robots with the rules in mind. In 2003 a lot more teams probably would have designed stack-building robots but with the rules at hand they decided not to. I'm sure a lot of teams this year decided to build hanging mechanisms in part due to the protection afforded by the rules. It would be wrong to change the rules now as a lot of teams would of made different decisions.