GP, Ramming, and Practice

[Jack Jones]

Originally Posted by Greg Perkins

As a ref at Pittsburgh last year I can tell you that us ref's paid little attention to the robots. We were still trying to streamline our calls, and understand the rules as best as we could. I would'nt rely on ref's on thursday to take note or robots simply because they are busy still learning the rules.

As for Lil' Lavery, 100% on the nose with this. Defense in practice is so low; for those teams who didn't have a chance to test prior to ship and thursday being thier only day to test, those teams who built their bot in probably 3 weeks with the mindset of defense and who have had the other 3 weeks to practice driving should respect the teams who need to comb out their robot. What satisfaction do you defensive teams get?

As a ref at GLR, Detroit, MWR, WMR, and Atlanta last year, I can tell you I went into them knowing the rules, and had all the time in the world to make sure the teams knew them too. Failure to prepare is never a good excuse for anything.

Number 71 took a nasty fall off the ramp in practice here at MWR and nobody heard them crying about it. They and 1213 have been at it all day - clean as heck - but they both came to play. Tomorrow's going to be awesome. "No place for a nervous person!", as we say back home in Hockey Town.