What we learned from week 1

[Grim Tuesday]

Originally Posted by thefro526

Doing it from the side is as easy as adding two pieces of fiberglass rod (or similar**) to your robot to make sure that if any part of your machine is under the pyramid, it's touching some point on the horizontal bar of level 1.

That being said, the intent of the pyramid rules seems to be quite clear to most people, but they're not written in such a way that they can be clearly and decisively called by a ref without that ref finding the correct vantage point.

I guess my big problem with the pyramid rules as written are that they do not award any protection to a machine that is inside of the pyramid but not touching it. One would think that this robot is offered some sort of protection, but that is not the case.

**Realistically, we could all go the vex route and start using zipties to extend a robot's contact points outside of traditional structure, but I like to think that we don't need to go there..

I absolutely don't think this years game needs any more protected zones. The field is already cramped enough with the pyramids taking up huge swaths of space and robots trying to travel around them to feeder stations. Teams who planned (notably not mine) to travel under they pyramid to lower the traffic jam should be given their requisite bonus in not being penalized.