The Dark Side of the 2013 game

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Hoover

From what I've gleaned robot tipping cannot be done as a strategy, so then the alternative is that it can be done as a knucklehead. But then this would be not in the spirit. So has anyone seen a case in 2013 when a robot was tipped by another and no technical foul was called? Stories?

We have tipped robots three times this year. At no time did we ever intend to - we simply pushed the robots and they went over. We were never called on it. If you build a tippy robot, the rules do not offer you protection against simple defense. Only clearly intentional tips (e.g. hitting a robot up high outside its bumper zone, driving hard into a partially tipped robot to "finish the job", etc) are called for technical fouls, as they should be.

Side note. I've noticed that the technical fouls seem to be 30 points, is this a modification from 20 in the glossary of the original publication?

They are 20 points. If the technical foul interfered with a hang, the alliance is given 30 hanging points.

I noted in one of my earlier posts that in another match a robot hit another robot, but since the second robot was top heavy... but it wasn't only that. The four wheels were almost to the frame perimeter. This plus the top heaviness and the robot slammed right over, boom. This happened right in front of us (on the stands) and I wasn't the only one who raised one brow. So to all of those who say you can't build a robot that will purposely tip, it can be done at least passively. There currently is no inspection test for some kind of minimum bumper hit.

All other things equal, wouldn't wheels farther to the edges of the frame perimeter result in a less tippy robot?

How does this jive with the idea of 5.4.4 (about ties) "the ALLIANCE that played the cleaner MATCH", implying that fouling is, how should I say it politely, not clean? In basketball, is fouling part of the dark side of that game, or just strategy?

This is an ongoing debate in the FRC world. In the past, intentional fouls have been worth it in niche situations, but in this game a "strategic foul" gets you a potential yellow card, according to the rules and Q&A.