Unscheduled Team Update: 3-20-2014

[AustinSchuh]

You guys all seem to be missing the point.

This update doesn't say "don't hit people". It doesn't say "don't push people". It says, don't leave your intake down and play D with it. Intakes can stick out 20". The outer 4-6" of my robot is built like a tank, because incidental contact is what happens. The inside of my shooter, which is almost centered in my robot, is still solid, but can't take repeated hard hits. The rules didn't say that it had to be designed to take a hard direct impact, and now it is quite clear that that is the case.

If you think this isn't currently a problem, then you haven't watched the quarterfinal matches at the Sacramento regional. Count the number of defensive hits inside the frame perimeter, and then check the score. No penalties were called until a robot was flipped.

You don't need to wind up full court and hit someone to play D. Some of the most effective D keeps a robot turned so they can't aim, or boxed out so they can't get somewhere. The rules in prior years used to say "no high speed ramming", and people used to play D then too.

I'm happy to see this change. I think it was overdue, and will force Referees to call the rule how it was intended to be called, rather than ignore it.