Can you go in the opposing alliance's alley?

[MountainFreak]

I need help on the clarification of this rule.
[G28]
Robots may not touch an opponent Robot in contact with its Key, Alley, or Bridge.
Violation: Foul; Technical-Foul for purposeful, consequential contact.

I understand that you cannot contact another robot in the alley, however can you go into the opposing alliance's alley and collect balls that the inbounders may have placed in play?

[Ninja_Bait]

Nothing says otherwise, so yes.

[brndn]

The only caveat is that you're more likely to make contact with them, which is a foul.

[Rocketeeringer]

You are allowed to go in as long as you do not make contact with them.

Even if they deliberately ram you while both of you are in the alley, under rules G28 and G44, you will be penalized.

(IMPORTANT EDIT: Brian Ha and 1986titans point out below that under G45 exploiting G44 will count as a technical foul and red card)

[DjMaddius]

Originally Posted by Rocketeeringer

You are allowed to go in as long as you do not make contact with them.

Even if they deliberately ram you while both of you are in the alley, under rules G28 and G44, you will be penalized.

In other words, if someone is in your alley on the opposing alliance. Go as quickly as possible and ram them multiple times. Rack up some points! >D lol

[Hallry]

Originally Posted by Rocketeeringer

You are allowed to go in as long as you do not make contact with them.

Even if they deliberately ram you while both of you are in the alley, under rules G28 and G44, you will be penalized.

Exactly. So, go in quickly, get whatever balls are in their alley, and get out of there as soon as possible.

[Brian Ha]

DO NOT DELIBRETLY HIT SOMEONE INSIDE THE LANE.

G45 will give u a tech foul. Its ungracious to do that.

[1986titans]

Originally Posted by Brian Ha

DO NOT DELIBRETLY HIT SOMEONE INSIDE THE LANE.

G45 will give u a tech foul. Its ungracious to do that.

... and a red card.

Originally Posted by FRC Manual

[G45]
Strategies exploiting Rule [G44] are not in the spirit of the FRC and are not allowed.
Violation: Technical-Foul and Red Card

I'm just curious what "exploiting" will be defined as because it's a rather vague term - if it was something like you could only hit someone in the lane once per time they went in there, that seems reasonable, but if the other team knew that, it seems like they wouldn't hurry out of there after being hit.

[Rocketeeringer]

Originally Posted by Brian Ha

DO NOT DELIBRETLY HIT SOMEONE INSIDE THE LANE.

G45 will give u a tech foul. Its ungracious to do that.

Oop yes you are right, I misinterpreted that .

To be safe just stay out of the alley, who knows what the refs will call

[XaulZan11]

Originally Posted by 1986titans

I'm just curious what "exploiting" will be defined as because it's a rather vague term - if it was something like you could only hit someone in the lane once per time they went in there, that seems reasonable, but if the other team knew that, it seems like they wouldn't hurry out of there after being hit.

My interprentation is that you can't actively seek out opportunites just to get the 3 point penalty. For example, if a team just picked a ball up in your alley, you can't go into the ally just to touch them and leave. If there are a few balls in your ally, you can go in there and touch them because you were going for the balls. Or, if a team is blocking you from getting into the ally, you can push them into the alley so you can get to your alley. Both of these examples would result in a foul for them. Again, just my opinion.

[theprgramerdude]

Intentionally hitting opponents sitting in an alley isn't an exploitation of G44, and thus wouldn't count as a G45 infraction. Hitting the opposing robot is an inevitability if they just sit in the infraction zone, and isn't a strategy for gaining free points, using the terminology in the rule.

G45, IMO, is primarily a repeat of last years rule modification, whereas a viable strategy for winning due to the super easy red card penalties is just push opposing robots into your tower/robots in contact with the tower during the end game. Thus, this rule is probably meant to be applied to situations where robots intentionally push the other team into infractions, rather than them knowingly making infractions easily possible.

[Gray Adams]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

My interprentation is that you can't actively seek out opportunites just to get the 3 point penalty. For example, if a team just picked a ball up in your alley, you can't go into the ally just to touch them and leave. If there are a few balls in your ally, you can go in there and touch them because you were going for the balls. Or, if a team is blocking you from getting into the ally, you can push them into the alley so you can get to your alley. Both of these examples would result in a foul for them. Again, just my opinion.

Even if you don't want the ball, I would think hitting them just to stop them from getting the ball counts as defense, not just seeking the penalty points.

[PayneTrain]

I assume an exploitation like G45 is a preemptive measure so we don't get the emergency team update like last year, where an alliance could bait a team into the zone, contact them, and get the alliance red cards.

If an alliance is controlling 9 balls in their robots and holds the remainder in their alley, they could bait teams into going into the alley and hitting them for a technical foul and DQ. If either bot intentionally hits the other in the alley or key, it's a DQ, and incidental is a technical. It's not GP to give teams that opportunity.