FIRST Rule Changes

[RRLedford]

One point that I don't think has been made is that MANY teams thought outside the box and carefully examined the looper scheme early on. They then decided this design would be truely bad for the competition to the degree that it could and likely would end up either disallowed or weakened by a rule change. Many of these teams anticipated the GDC would not allow the looper advantage to remain in place once it was clearly demonstrated how massivly it could alter the game.

Ours was one of these teams, and we assessed it as both too dominating a game killer idea AND one that, as a rookie team, we considered too risky to pursue. We expected back then, and we still do feel that the GDC would at some point, and still should do something to reduce (NOT ELIMINATE) the looper advantage. We had lots of valid reasons for abandoning the looper idea, and in talking about it with our team Wed., despite knowing what 469 has accomplished, they still believe NOT doing a looper was the right decision. It is mainly a philosophical perspective with them that the looper scheme detracts from the game play. Even though we had considered loopers to be an ultimate strategy, and one we were capable of implementing effectively, we did not, and still don't want to be, a team altering the game so dramaticly in the direction that 469 has done.

So as we view things now, the GDC, by allowing the looper advantage, has created a monster . The genie is out of the bottle and it's too late to get it back in. We never expected it to be allowed out of the bottle, and we don't like the way that it has impacted the game. Still, this is the way it has gone down, so we will deal with the situation. It's not the end of the world , we will not wine or complain. If we see any new strategies emerge for equalizing the looper advantage, we will be encouraged, and we will share any that we come up with too.
All the Best.
-Dick Ledford