Fouls that "Didn't Affect the Outcome of the Match"

[Caleb Sykes]

Originally Posted by Gregor

Not that everyone agrees with the value of the penalty points (see: Spanking the Children), but the reason they exist to get rid of the situation where "taking a foul" is advantageous. If offering different foul point values at different times in the match, it could create a situation of intentionally taking a foul for net gain.

This is absolutely true. The problem with this year's game was that the penalty value required to avoid certain behaviors varied with the number of ASSISTS the opponent had. 50 points worth of fouls are needed when the opponent's ball has 3 assists on it, but no more than 20 are needed when there are no assists on it. A better way of assigning penalties this year would have been:
FOUL value = 10*(# of ASSISTS that the opposing alliance currently has)
TECHNICAL FOUL value = 20 + 10*(# of ASSISTS that the opposing alliance currently has)

Given, this would have made the game even more complex, but I think the grand majority of teams would have preferred this since it likely would have reduced the penalty points considerably. Also, some values would have to be worked out for autonomous and autonomous balls.