can there be agressive play?

[Koko Ed]

In my three years in FIRST and the competitions I have attended I preferred the "physical" challenges over the "cerbral" ones. The 2002 rug game was fairly boring particualrly in the playoffs. One robot would race to the goals and just hold them in their zone while the other allaince would pull with utter fultility to move them and fail miserably more often than not. Total snoozefest.
The Stack Attack game was pretty fun with it's King-of-the-Hill element even if the main goal of the competiton inadvertant bred it's mutant illigitimant child (cue dramitic music) COLLUSION (is it just me or is that word veing used wrong in that context?) !!!!
Last years competiton was a brilliant mix of the physical (king of the hill battle for the bar) and the cerebral (so many strategies could be used to win and an incredible array of many different kinds of robots of all kinds of shapes and sizes). The most exciting moment I remember from last year happened in the playoffs at Buckeye (I think it was a semi-final match) when team 378 the Circut Stompers had latched onto the bar but had not pulled up yet becasue team 279 and their amazing clamshell bot was tryign to get on the bar. 378 tried blocking them but 279 latched on and 378 tried to sit on them but 279 would not be denied and pulled themselves up and took 378 off of the bar abd down to the floor. The place went nuts.
I know there are alot of old schoolers who fret that FIRST is turing into The Robotics Competition That Cannot Be Mentioned but truth be told y'all need to get off of your high horses. This aint some country club bred proper gentlemans game where we have to have absolute silence when the robot are doing their manuvers. There's loud music and even louder cheering. This is as high octanane enegry as any sporting event out there. A little contact never hurt anyone (and truth be told it's kinda fun even if you're the one getting slammed).
It's not like were going to turn into The Robotics Competition That Cannot Be Mentioned part II. But if you want the general public to get on board guess what? They like the rough stuff (and please don't say "well we don't need them" because we do. If you want to change the culture sometimes you need to change a little yourself). Which do you prefer? Last years multifacited game (that included rough play) or the four team alliance cure for insomnia from 2000? We can still be rough and smart because FIRST isn't just innovative it's imaginative.