Problem with Penalties

[XaulZan11]

I think many would agree that there were too many penalties and matches decided by these penalties. I know its super hard to see your team play well in a match, lead in the real time only to find out a few minutes later that you lost due to a penalty or two. I know it turned many off on Overdrive.

I know many have proposed to change, alter or get rid of some rules to decrease the amount of matches decided by pentalties. I propose a change to the away penalties effect the game and final score. Looking at the major sports, I can only think of golf that simply takes points away from the penalized team (or in Golf add strokes). In the other sports, penalties alter the game and give the other team an advantage but doesn't directly effect the final score. In football, they move the ball foward or backward; basketball has foul shots for the other team to earn points; hockey takes a player away for a specific amount time.

To the best of my knowledge, there has always been penalties that simply deducted points from the penalized (someone correct me if I'm wrong). I'm sure there will always be penalties in FIRST, so I think we should look at how penalties effect the game. Perhaps disable the penalized robot for 5 seconds, or give the other alliance 3 seconds at the end of the match for each penalty with the other alliance disabled.

Anyway, I think simply deducting points away at the end of the match for penalties isn't the best solution. I think by giving the other team an advantage so they can earn points (instead of just being given points (by having opponents lose points)) is better.