I was wondering if you built a blocking/defensive bot if you could block other bots that are shooting EVEN IF they’re in that protective area on either end of the field. I know you can’t TOUCH them, but if you never touch them physically, can you block the balls they’re shooting? Or is that against the rules? Any help is welcome =)
As far as I can tell yes you can block shots, but one major downfall is that you can only be 60 inches tall while on the other teams side of the court. So you would only be an effective shot blocker on shots at the lowest goal or shots originating very close to the ground from the robot. It appears that although blocking shots was not banned, as far as I can tell, the game committee wanted to steer teams away from that strategy.
Hello, Strategist from Team 443 here.
Looking at the rules of the game this year, playing a defensive bot would be very difficult to put it lightly. Your maximum height restriction to start the match is 60in, and is also 60 inches if you are on your alliance station side, or the side they will be attempting to score at. However, when they come to score, they are allowed a maximum height of 84". In addition, you can’t touch their robot in the key, or in their alley, or their bridge, which takes a significant amount of space, and their is also a rule on using more than one bot to stop the flow of the match. At most, defence will be played by bots who work as a defense bot who plays by the rules, just to slow them down, and also a feeder to carry missed balls to the other side of the field. If you intend to follow this path, know you’re gonna need to know the rules forward, backwards, and sideways so you don’t rack up big points for the other team. 
Good luck with your decisions.
Where do the rules mention you can only be 60 in on one side and 84 on the other?
Rule [G20] in The Game.
Ouch, Ok thanks 