[YMTC]: taking penalties to force a draw

[eugenebrooks]

RedaTeam finds itself ahead by a few points, with BluaTeam having zero points, but BluaTeam has robot lift that works, has deployed it, and a robot has gotten up on the lift. It is in the last 20 seconds of the match, and RedaTeam crashes into the robot on the lift before it is lifted, knocking it off the lift to the rear. The clock is ticking and the endgame starts. The dislodged robot backs back up onto the lift. The RedaTeam robot then proceeds to crash into the robot again, knocking it off the lift, and then after the dislodged robot gets back on to the lift a third time it crashes into it to knock it off a third time. The clock runs out before the dislodged robot can get back on the lift again...

It is clear that this was no accident, the third time was the charm.
The thirty points of penaties zero RedaTeam's score, and since BlueTeam
had no points the result is a draw for RedaTeam, instead of a loss,
providing less of ding to the RedaTeam's robot standings in the seeding.
RedaTeam cheers the draw...

Now, the questions worth discussing:

* RedaTeam learned that you could obtain a draw, instead of a loss, by purposely taking penalities to prevent BluaTeam from scoring points. Is this what FIRST stands for?
* Should the referrees have ordered the offending RedaTeam robot disabled, say after the second collision, when it was clear to all what was going on?
* Should penalties produce a "signed score" so that a team that zeros their score via penalties can go negative and thereby lose a match when they pursue this strategy.

No doubt someone saw this happen at a regional, and perhaps more than one, but I would implore anyone responding to this thread to stick to the spirit of the thread. The goal here is to discuss the basic issue, and make suggestions to adjust the rules to deal with it. Please don't mention any team names, or identify any regional.

Eugene