A "Dangerous Situation"

[J_Miles]

Interesting...

(Disclaimer: I was a referee under Mark Garver (The MSC Head Ref) this season at Waterford, and am not a current member of 2337)

There is quite the logical conundrum here. I am personally of the opinion that putting oneself in the position where committing a foul is a possibility places the burden of the foul on that team (in this situation, your team's robot); HOWEVER, it is clearly stated in rule G18-1 that

"Strategies aimed solely at forcing the opposing ALLIANCE to violate a rule are not in the spirit of FRC and are not allowed. Rule violations forced in this manner will not result in assessment of a penalty on the target ALLIANCE .

Violation: TECHNICAL FOUL"

With THAT said, Mark and the rest of the Refs at Waterford discussed this very rule in a situation that arose at Hub City involving 1986, 16, and 2848:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spyRub7z1Bw
The action of 16 forced 2848 into the pyramid. Consequential contact with the pyramid is a foul for the team making contact (Here, 2848); however, per rule 18-1, forcing a team into a foul is a rules violation. The conclusion of our discussion was that NO FOULS would be assessed in this situation because we judge that team 16 was pushing 2848 not to try and force a foul, but rather to attempt to move 2848 out of the way so that 1986 might be able to shoot unhindered.

This seems quite similar to the situation you described. Ultimately, though, it is up to the head referee to make that call. I would expect that 2337 forcing your machine into 67's would not be considered a foul, but if 67 initiated the contact, a foul WOULD be assessed - a technical foul if the contact was deemed "Purposeful or Consequential." Again, ultimately this is up to the head referee to decide, but there are arguments to both the decision made at MSC and a "no-call" philosophy.

My advice would be to ensure that you clarify this same question with the head referee on your field at championships and adjust accordingly.

(As a side-note, getting in between a FCS defender and the FCS robot is not necessarily match-ending because it simply forces the defender to circle around and push from behind. Yes, there may be a delay, but certainly not match-ending because there is no point at which the team attempting to block can safely "sit" to effectively cause a stalemate)