Using Discs to Block Full Court Shooters

[dtengineering]

At the two events I've been to this year, full-court shooters (948 and 4334) were on the winning alliance. The general strategy was to have the FCS get into position and the #3 pick run interference to keep the opposing alliance's "blocker" robot away.

Alliances without a "blocker" may as well have packed up and gone home, but a good blocker could really cut down on the effectiveness of even the best FCS machines.

The rules clearly limit a "blocker" robot to 84" in height, but I can't seem to find anything that would prevent a blocker from grasping a disc and raising the disc above 84". Likewise, while a robot may never exceed a 54" cylinder, a disc is certainly allowed to leave the cylinder.

For teams heading to St. Louis, knowing that they aren't a great shooter, and are only a 10 point climber, would it not be possible to use the 30 pound withholding allowance to build a lightweight mechanism that would grasp three discs using grippers right at the edges of the robot size envelope, and become a blocker with an effective height of 94" and width of 60+"?

A quick sketch would explain this even better... but if you've read this far, you probably get the idea. I feel kind of bad suggesting this, because full court shooters that can rapidly hit "three" after "three" are a thing of beauty. (Yeah, 948, that's you I'm talking about!)

But just think how much more effective a shot blocker could be if they were using the discs to extend their reach.

Jason