[pfreivald]

My primary suggestion for how things can be done better is the same every year: If something is illegal, and will garner a penalty, it should be penalized *every time*, consistently, and without even the tiniest regard to whether or not it will make the game 0-0...

From contact outside the bumper zone (which was almost never called during Overdrive, much to my chagrin given our robot design) to balls 3+" inside the frame perimeter (which was properly called week one, and then modified afterward for reasons I do not agree with), teams should have very clear expectations for how their robot should be designed so as to minimize penalties.

Defining situations that incur penalties and then not penalizing them (to the best of the refs' abilities, of course) just simply should not be done. If it's a penalty, then students should design their robots not to incur that penalty -- and if they don't, then they should learn a little something about game play and design constraints, just like every other aspect of the game.