Team Update 2-19 and FRC Blog - Week 0 Observations and Stop Build Day

[ToddF]

I might as well weigh in...

I don't have a problem with a rule change for the sake of safety. I'm not even all that bothered that the GDC didn't anticipate the problem.

My problem is that their solution needlessly changed the strategic analysis of the game. I came into this thread late, but reading through the posts, it seems that most people don't disagree that a rule change was needed. They are just outraged at the unfairness of the actual change. It didn't need to be this way.

With just a little thought, a rule change could have been made which would have satisfied nearly everyone, because it would have left the strategy of the game intact (nearly). The best ones I've seen suggested are to either start with more disks on the floor, or to have referees toss out a handful of them at each side of the field (or the centerline) with 30 seconds left in the match.

The idea I like best would be:
"everybody wins"
-increase the number of disks on the centerline at the start from 2 to 8
-drop eight more on the centerline (four on each side) with 30 seconds left.
-ban all throwing of disks (not just white ones). If hard thrown disks are a safety hazard, it doesn't what color they are. This restores the stragic balance by making everyone happy, climber/dumpers and floor pickup robots.

"everybody looses"
As an alternative, only allow colored disks to count as scored if they are shot into the pyramid goals, not dumped. That would restore the strategic balance between floor pickup and climber/dumpers. Teams who just climb without dumping and those who only load from the feeder stations are unaffected, and floor pick-up'ers and dumpers both loose scoring potential which is roughly equal.