yea like pushing or raming? 
You can probably go to the FIRST website and search for the rules of the previous game.
But for defense purposes pushing or pinning robots are permitted but only for a few seconds. Say, for instance, to keep a robot away from capping a goal or getting to the bar. But if a ref feels that the robotâs action was unsafe or too aggressive, it will be disabled for the rest of the match.
Not purposely, but FIRST doesnât tell you to build a hearty robot for nothingâŚ
In addition to this, usually FIRST referees will make a signal which shows that you have been pushing too long⌠If they also think youâre coming from high speeds at another end of the field to hit the opposing robot, they will either warn you or disqualify you.
In the case that you go at a high speed from one end to another and slow down EXTREMELY before you play defense by pushing the robot, well thatâs completely legal.
As long as you keep your eyes on the field and on what the referee may be signaling, and not intentionally try to ruin another robot, youâre good to go! 
Thatâs not always the case.
Observe.
When you building your robot I think you should make it to take some hits. Now, I donât agree with flagrant, needless ramming, but there should be some pushing and shoving. It makes the matches more fun to watch! There does need to be a defined line where to stop âfriendly contactâ and âneedless contactâ.
-Kyle
Yes, certainly there can, but you just have to make sure you donât cross the line between strategic and malicious. Blocking is fine. Pinning is fine (though there are rules that both teams and refs have to follow about this, so know them well), slowing down an opponent or getting them stuck on something is fine. Pushing is fine as long as it isnât into something out of bounds. If a robot happens to not be robust and ceases to function under this contact, too bad for the robot. Remember that if two robots hit each other, they both take the same amount of punishment; the modifier is how much of this either robot can take.
Bottom line though: your answer will be in the rules next year, and not in the opinion of a ChiefDelphi poster. What one poster might think is legal, another might (perhaps wrongly) think is malicious. Imagine that poster built the robot you just wrecked. Or worse still, imagine that poster was a refereeâŚ
I donât understand. Are you suggesting the tipping of your robot in that match was illegal?
Koko Ed
At what time remaining in the match was the event we are supposed to be looking at?
No, I was just saying that there are times there are agressive play in FIRST. We had a built in weakness in our robot (too top heavy) and it got tipped over easily and other teams at the championship took advatage of it and slammed us often. It was fair. If you donât like getting tipped donât build a robot that tips.
At 1:29 left in the match 662 raced across the platform and threw us off the platform to the floor.
the rules always say that this isnt a game where you try to destroy your opponate, which is true. but no matter what the challenge is there will be ramming, pinning and blocking.
You can be aggressive, but not destructive. That is how it has been in the past, and likely will be in the future.
As always, read the new rules.
Wetzel
This is one of, if not the hardest line for FIRST to define. Even so, it is also difficult to have enforced in the exact same manner every match because of the different referees at each regional. For example, in my teamâs past year, (which consider a bit of a controvesial one) we had different decisions made against us. Here is a example of the blurry line. [just as a note to readers- [i]please do not start discussion on this case⌠the topic has been beaten to a pulp already.] No call was made against us or our opponents. However at IRI, our drivers were attempting to prevent a robot from hanging, and accidentally closed the arm grippers on our opponent and then released them- while it was accidental, it could also have been viewed as dangerous and threatening to our opponents. In that match, we were disqualified. The referees view it as too aggressive for fair play.
In the end, you just have to keep a respect for your opponents and their robots- they worked hard to construct them as well.
_Alex
i feel that, within reason, yes, agressive play should be allowed. i define reason on a similar plane as FIRST, blocking/pushing/and otherwise forcing your opponent should only be allowed for a few seconds at a time before penalties should be enforced. For obvious reasons, full speed ramming (like what happened in Koko Edâs video) is dangerous, not gracious or professional in any way, and should not be allowed.
But whether you run your robot into a concrete pillar in st. louis while programming on accident!, or anticipate getting hit around a bit by the competition, a steel frame is always a safe choice 
âŚby the way, we did more damage to that pillar (a few small chunks flew off :ahh: ) than we did to our robot (nothing)
In my three years in FIRST and the competitions I have attended I preferred the âphysicalâ challenges over the âcerbralâ 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 itâs King-of-the-Hill element even if the main goal of the competiton inadvertant bred itâs 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 yâall 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. Thereâs 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 itâs kinda fun even if youâre the one getting slammed).
Itâs 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 donât say âwell we donât need themâ 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 isnât just innovative itâs imaginative.
Defense wins Championships.
I can not put it any better then that. Rough play is inevitable when you get into the playoffs. It also is very exciting, as long as the other robots dont get torn apart or the field(although i tore the field in half at B.E., thats another story). If the game gets slow again, i think we may lose more students and prospective teams. The past two years have been incredibly exciting and non stop action until the very end.
In my own experiences this year, we went through NJ, Annapolis, Nationals, and PARC playing an offensive minded game. Never made it past the quarterfinals. Then in the next four offseasons I changed my strategy to playing defense and hanging only if necessary. We won 3 of the 4 and got 2nd in the other. I also have watched 494 vs 469 in the final matches over and over on SOAP and this only supports my theory.
However, I knew the extent of how to play defense (changes for every years rules). You need to be able to shove and push around, but not RAM with intent to harm or Batter repetitively. Ramming should be ok in some situations though. When you have little time left to block an opponent, i personally think almost anything can go (just no intent to harm). Say a robot is pulling itself up on the other side of the field, you have to go full speed to prevent them from getting up, and instead of slowing down and possibly letting them latch on, you have to get them out of the way. I know this is not a very well liked strategy, but if its win or lose, then you have to.
A really really good post. I love your message about FIRSTers getting off their horses (not anyone in particular at least =P). The development in technology through the years leads to more and more challenges for the teams to accomplish. At the same time, the people who are not involved with FIRST may not realise the extra effort it takes to adapt to these new technologies (IR for example). In order for FIRST to continue its growth, a balance needs to be achieved between entertainment and technological challenge. The raucous cheering in Atlanta this April proved to me that FIRST just might have been on to something with raising the bar =P
If you expect to go onto the field with a robot that tips over easily or can be pushed around and you donât think other teams will take advantage of it think again. I donât think that there are any teams that would intentionally damage a robot, but the robots are very powerful and are easy to do damage with. This past season we had a very strong pushing bot and it got us in trouble with the refs a few times. We flipped somewhere around 8 bots during the season. We werenât trying to do it on purpose, but the robots with exposed wheels would just climb right up our frame and flip over. The ref told us we needed to calm it down a little and we tried our best to keep from tipping other robots. You feel bad when your team destroys or damages another teams bot. If our team damaged another teams robot I would expect my team to go help with repairs. Its part of gracious professionalism. You have to help out other teams and build those lasting friendships with them. The thing is, you never know when they might choose you as an alliance partner.
-Aaron
We had a match with team 67 and got tangled up with them and got judo thrown the the floor. They came over to our pits and apologized. We were in the next match with them and scored our highest point total of the year.
One thing that is very unique about FIRST compared to other sporting events is that getting along with other is of paramount importance because you actually have to work with otehr teams. So if you go around burning bridges you will find yourself in need of the burn cream yourself.
Itâs important to remember the rules with regards to aggressive play, rather then specific extreme cases, especially when conveying information to rookies.
Rules like [rule=r10/2004]R10[/rule], [rule=r17/2004]R17[/rule], [rule=g06/2004]G06[/rule], [rule=g27/2004]G27[/rule], [rule=g31/2004]G31[/rule], [rule=g32/2004]G32[/rule] come to mind, although there are probably others.