Quote:
Originally Posted by RRLedford
What harm would this rule change cause?
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It would harm the team(s) that successfully identified this rule as presenting an opportunity to play the game more effectively by denying them the opportunity to play the game according to the rules. More significantly, however, it would harm the collective belief of FRC teams that good design will be rewarded with good results. We need to trust that if WE find a way to make a legal robot that can dominate the game that we will be allowed to dominate the game.
Its not like the strategy wasn't openly discussed here on Chief Delphi during build season, or that their design required resources that were beyond the reach of any of the rest of us. Any of us
could have done this.
It's just that so far only one team... out of the several hundred to compete so far... has managed to find the will and the way to make it work with devastating effectiveness.
Let's celebrate their success, and find a way... within the rules... to deal with it.
Jason
P.S. In our first year (2004) 1241 -- then a rookie team -- came up with a complete game-beater robot. They would open a big net on top of their robot, and capture all the small balls as they fell on to the playing field in one fell swoop. After trouncing many more experienced teams, one clever opponent grabbed a big ball, and stuffed it in to the opening of their ball hopper, completely jamming the mechanism. Brilliant robots will generate brilliant responses. Just wait and see what the collective ingenuity of 1800 FRC teams will do given a month to contemplate this idea.