Wisconsin Regional 2016

[XaulZan11]

Originally Posted by EricLeifermann

Nope they said a member of our alliance ripped out the radio of 537. And this was supposedly during the final 20 seconds...

I think this is the perfect example of how silly FIRST's philosophy of "if you break or tip an opponent, it's a penalty. If you don't, it's fine". The play in eliminations was some of the most intense I've seen (robots driving onto other robots, robots using arms to get under other robots and then lifting arms in what appeared to be an attempt to tip them) and this foul would not have made the top 20 in most egregious robot to robot interactions. But since the red alliance hit a blue alliance robot (which lost communication three other times in eliminations including 35 seconds earlier that match) and that blue alliance robot lost communication, red gets a match deciding penalty. It has gotten to the point where many teams would be better off building extremely tippable, breakable robots than trying to tackle the game's challenge.

All that being said, my issue isn't with the refs at this event (I appreciate them letting teams play), but the rule books insistence on calling some penalties if and only if the opposing robot breaks or tips.