Problem with Penalties

[Karthik]

Perhaps I'm biased, but I thought FIRST Overdrive was the best game we've had in years, partly because of certain rules and penalties. In specific, the hurdler interference rule really changed the way the game was played this season. Teams could design a robot to score points and be offensive, and know that they would be free of interference while trying to score. To me this is a very good thing. In the same way that you can't touch a basketball player while he's shooting, or a wide receiver while the ball is in the air, robots were free of contact while hurdling. At the Greater Toronto Regional, we saw teams who usually never score with any degree of effectiveness become offensive threats, since they were no longer subject to overt contact while trying to score. Teams could finally showcase the creations that they had worked so hard to build.

In terms of G22 being to punitive of a penalty, I'm going to have to disagree. FIRST Overdrive would not have worked as a game if teams didn't move around the track in one direction. G22 needed to be a harsh penalty to ensure teams didn't intentionally violate the rule to gain an advantage. Unfortunately, it did punish teams who accidentally broke the rule, even in the slightest amounts. To me the positive of keeping FIRST Overdrive as a flowing offensive game, outweighed the negative of those painful G22 calls.