Capping a Team Legal?

[Nate Edwards]

I searched around and didn't find this on a thread this year, so I am bringing this question to the 2005 game. Most people saw the instance where a team capped another last year with the big Yellow ball when the other team had alot of purple balls in their ball catching mechanism. I was wondering if it was legal to cap another team. Say a team had multiple tetras and was going towards a goal, and instead of waiting for them to put the many tetras on the goal, you just put your color on top of them. This may be a good strategy because it would put your tetra on top, some teams have a max they can carry or cap and putting an extra one on top may go over this limit. I don't know if its worth it all the time, but it might be a worthwhile strategy. If anyone has an answer that would be great. Thanks
Nate

[Kyle]

Is it legal? Yes. Is Graciously Professional? No. Is it smart? Yes

That is kinda one of dlavery's quotes, i tweeked it a bit though.

[Koko Ed]

I think there was an instance where either we or Rolling Thunder attempted to cap East but I don't think it was sucessful.

[Raul]

If your robot is good enough to cap a moving robot, would it not be that much better at capping a goal that is obviously stationary. How often would a robot be sitting still while you are capping a tetra in their possession? Probably only when in the loading zone - and we already know you will get a 30 point penalty for touching them while loading.

[Nate Edwards]

Originally Posted by Raul

If your robot is good enough to cap a moving robot, would it not be that much better at capping a goal that is obviously stationary. How often would a robot be sitting still while you are capping a tetra in their possession? Probably only when in the loading zone - and we already know you will get a 30 point penalty for touching them while loading.

What I am talking about is if you were capping a team that usually waits until the end to put the tetras on ( leaving not enough time to cap the goal they just capped?, so wouldn't it be smart to cap them?... Teams that I have seen with over 3 tetras have been considerably slow with that many tetras, slow enough to cap them.

[pakrat]

what about capping a robot's arm at a joint, and keeping them from moving their arm??

[J Flex 188]

I would not say that capping a team per se is graciously unprofessional; its just another example of a really unique (whether or not it proves to be usable) strategy. The same could be said if someone spent the whole match locking you in one corner.

I wasn't sure if thats what was meant, but hey, just to throw it out there.

[thoughtful]

Originally Posted by pakrat

what about capping a robot's arm at a joint, and keeping them from moving their arm??

That would be very unGP. It might seem smart but think about it, that might cause damage to their robot; the robot they built for the past 6 weeks. Capping a robot is fine and will be a crowd pleaser, but intentionally capping an arm joint, or jamming a tetra into a robot will be very very wrong.

[jgannon]

Originally Posted by Kyle

Is it legal? Yes. Is Graciously Professional? No. Is it smart? Yes

From this thread:

Originally Posted by jgannon

Since when is playing good defense a "dirty move"? Last year you saw plenty of teams take away a 2X ball that was in the possession of another robot or already atop a goal, and nobody got infuriated about it. It's part of the game. If you don't try to pull the other robot down, you'll get no reputation other than as a team with an agile robot and good strategy. Besides, how much fun would it be if you just got to spend two minutes running around unencumbered? Would pushing another robot out of the way be a "dirty move"?

There's a video around here somewhere of team 93 getting their giant ball dump capped. It wasn't illegal, and I didn't hear anybody say it wasn't graciously professional. Defense is part of the game.

[Nate Edwards]

Originally Posted by jgannon

From this thread:

There's a video around here somewhere of team 93 getting their giant ball dump capped. It wasn't illegal, and I didn't hear anybody say it wasn't graciously professional. Defense is part of the game.

Thanks for telling the Team Number I was lost trying to remember that #. I don't think there is a rule this year about it either, if there is one please refer me to it.

[Yan Wang]

I think it would be a great move in the right conditions. However, be cautious - bouncy yellow balls are much less damaging than pointy, 8.5lb tetras. If something on the receiving robot breaks, both teams will pay the price in some way.

[jgannon]

Originally Posted by Nate Edwards

Thanks for telling the Team Number I was lost trying to remember that #. I don't think there is a rule this year about it either, if there is one please refer me to it.

AFAIK, there is no rule against it.

[Alex1072]

I think capping a stack of tetras would be not fall under unGP unless you did knowing that it would break their lifter. If you have a reasonable expectation that doing this will break them, then it's very unGP. I would be surprised if this strategy happened very often though.

[Steve W]

Legal yes and what does GP have to do with it? This is a competition and there is no rule against it so it is legal. Therefore it has nothing to do with GP. I would also have to question whether capping a team while in the loading zone is or is not legal. If you drop a tetra and are not touching the tetra or other robot then you have also not broken any rules. The rule states that if you are touching a tetra and it comes in contact then it is a penalty as the tetra is an extension of your robot.

I could be wrong and if so please post the correct ruling.

[slickguy2007]

We were capped last year and as a driver/competitor I was mad, but I did not think that it was ungracious of them. I had realized that it was just a good strategy and I just dealt with it. This year if that happens, which i am sure it will, and it causes damage that would probably just be considered normal game play. If someone uses their arm to block someone from placing tetras would that be considered normal game play or would this be ruff housing and would then be penalized?(that is a question from me, gimme some opinions or something that i missed.)


GO 1403!!!