Is defense necessary in practice rounds?

[pklevann]

This is a general question for all teams and participants. Is it necessary to practice defense during practice rounds? Personally I do not see any reason to practice pushing or ramming another robot during the practice rounds on Thursday. I don't see any reason to even touch another robot during practice unless it is agreed upon by all teams. This years game requires offensive robots time to "dial in" a shooter and/or tweak a ball gathering mechanism. It is difficult to do that when you are getting pushed and bumped by other teams. In some instances at GLR teams were playing flat out rockem sockem on THURSDAY. How is it GP to bump, slam, and crash an opponent trying to tune their robot during practice rounds? Is it GP to potentially cause significant damage to an opponent during practice? Practice rounds were much more useful when it was a ten minute, unstructured period, in which you could test out your robot without fear of having things broken or more frustrating, being prevented from even attempting to work out a problem because an over aggressive robot is "practicing" bumping you. What are your thoughts?