FIRST Rule Changes

[RRLedford]

Originally Posted by Kevin Sevcik

Dick,

What reason is there to restrict the number of defensive robots in an alliances home zone? This unfairly restricts the defensive robots' access to the single most important point scoring locale on the field, giving the alliance an unfair access to their own goals. Offensive double teaming in the this zone gives alliances an unfair advantage and unfair control of these goals. Defensive alliances should have unlimited access to an opponent's home zone so that they can adequately defend against this rule exploit.

The above argument holds just about as much water as yours, near as I can tell. Changing that rule would fundamentally change the game in numerous ways predictable and not, similar to your suggested change to the rules. Have you bothered to consider what other exploits and unfairness your rule change would unleash on the game? I've thought of a couple. The rules are the rules because they're the rules. We got a game we've all agreed to play and it's working out fairly well with, perhaps, one annoyance. I, personally, don't want to unleash such a large change as you're contemplating IN THE MIDDLE OF COMPETITION. If you really want to play a different game than the rest of us, wait till the offseason and make your pitch to the offseason committees.

Two goals + one defender implies more scoring was intended. Allowing two or three defenders at opponents goal zone would dramatically reduce scoring. Keeping the scoring zone un-clogged with bots makes perfect sense. The return ramp normally puts the scored balls back to midfield and heads them in the direction opposite of where they were scored => UNLESS A LOOPER IS DEPLOYED to neutralize this ball flow game design concept. Now you have ALL THE BALLS dropping back in the offensive zone AND and the TWO-ON-ONE advantage you describe COMBINED! Normally, ganging up on the defender only works briefly, until returned balls start flowing back toward the opposition's goals => UNLESS A LOOPER IS DEPLOYED.
So, what you confirm is another reason why the looper scheme opens the door for even more unfairness, since it facilitates maintaining the two-on-one defender advantage for the entire match. In a normal match, a lack of balls for scoring would eventually send one of the two bots ganging up back to get more balls from midfield => UNLESS A LOOPER IS DEPLOYED