[thefro526]

I already posted in this thread, but I dislike the next subject so much that I'll make another post.

BUMPERS.

I've never really known a game in the Pre-Bumper Era except for triple play, and I feel that bumpers a good thing for FRC because they do lessen some impacts and the amount of damage taken by a robot due to defense. Any robot I build from this point forward will have bumpers whether they are mandatory or not.

BUT, I hated the mandatory bumper colors and marking restrictions this year. Also, I don't think that bumpers should be mandatory, or at least the rules should be relaxed so they aren't such a design restriction. I can understand what FIRST was trying to do with the red and blue bumpers this year, but many teams used bumpers in previous years to help in decorating their robot and to carry their team image through their machine.

Personally, I think that FIRST should find another way to differentiate one alliance from the other that isn't bumper colors. IMO, I'm a huge fan of the Giant Spinning light used in games pre-2005.