2012 IRI Predictions

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by waialua359

This was about the only concern I had about the rule changes.
They'll need about 2-3 more bridges on the practice field.

Thus ensuring a very congested space filled with moving machinery, increasing the risk of injury - you know how many people are involved in handling cables and "spotting" robots once they're on the bridge. I just foresee nonstop chaos and unequal access at the practice area. If a formal schedule isn't meticulously kept by a bevy of volunteers, and the traffic on the field isn't managed by another bevy, some teams are going to be shut out of the triple practice process (much like they were in St. Louis), and safety will become a huge concern.

Unless the staff establishes a very structured method of controlling practice field access (the six teams in Match #X are scheduled to practice on the field 15 minutes before they are requested to queue, for example), I think they should disallow all triple practice and let teams have at it with nothing but prior event experience to draw from.

Isn't part of the "mystique" of qualifying triples supposed to be the "newness" of it all? Tripling in qualifying is the anti-elimination experience - you're not supposed to have any prior practice - just have at it.

Plus, presuming a team will want to triple attempt with partners more often than not (not necessarily the case for all teams), the thought of spending every possible minute outside of your qualifying matches either on the practice field or waiting to get on it seems....not fun.