As the title suggests, I haven’t seen anything in the rules (possibly overlooked) that says you can’t shoot from your trench… Any input?
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Your sector is the only place on the field you are not allowed to shoot from.
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Thanks for the quick reply!
The rule limiting shooting states your bumpers cannot be fully contained within your sector.
If you’re not meeting that limitation, you can shoot. Though, you’ll want to compare the accuracy from that location versus the time required to go a little further to get the shot off with greater accuracy. That’ll impact your average cycle time per power cell.
If your looking for that “protected zone” remember G10. Even if your bumpers are slightly across the line, it’s a TECH FOUL (15points) if your opponent to touches you.* 
*Just remember it goes both ways, don’t touch them either
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Your sector is the only place on the field you are not allowed to score from. You can “shoot” from there but you better not shoot far enough to make it into your opponents sector.
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Nice try about the “goes both ways”. “regardless of who initiates contact” is in G10, so if you hit them, ring up 15 points to your score. If they hit you, ring up 15 points to your score. BUT! If you’re doing that as a strategy, check C8 first!
Teams often use this method as a strategy. Check 2016 Stronghold. Teams specifically put their bumpers over the defenses because it was a “safe zone” and shot from there. It’s good strategy to always look to shoot from areas that are protected.
I made the “goes both ways” comment to show that if this is a strategy your opponent is using you should look out for them because you’ll get the penalty.
I also don’t believe C8 would apply here because all your doing is shooting from an already protected area*. I can’t see how that would be forcing your opponent to commit a foul.
*unless you’re sitting there waiting for your opponent to come by then hit them, but even that would be iffy, the opponents have plenty of area to go by, and they even have their own “safe zone” they can go through.
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Be very careful about this. Take a close look at G10 and G11.
G10 is a foul when you touch an opponent and YOU are in your opponent’s protected zone, regardless of where they are. G11 is a foul when you touch an opponent who is in THEIR OWN protected zone.
G10 applies to the TRENCH ZONE, G11 does not. So if you have a corner in your TRENCH ZONE and your opponent, who isn’t in your TRENCH ZONE, contacts you, that’s not a foul. It’s only a foul if your opponent contacts you while THEY are in your TRENCH ZONE.
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I did, in fact, miss G11 leaving out the Trench Run. Thank you. Your right this makes the trench zone an unprotected space unless you are fully contained within the space such that your opponent would have to enter it to hit you.
Thanks for the correction / clarification.
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Right, but if your entirely within the trench, then they would have to cross into the trench to contact you, which would make G10 apply.
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Sure, I wasn’t saying that the TRENCH ZONE isn’t an unprotected zone. But if you only have a corner in, you aren’t protected. You need to be entirely inside, which pushes your shooter back another ~2.5 feet and makes it much harder for two teams to shoot from there simultaneously.
I personally think that shooting from there is less advantageous as we think, as seen in G10 and G11. farther distance, possibility to be blocked if at the long end, and navigated the wheel of fortune. Realistically, it does offer a chance to get back and forth quicker, if your bot is smaller.
That’s what I was asking about, the cycle time is considerably less if your robot can pass underneath the control panel, and shoot right from there. In addition, defense can’t be played while you’re FULLY in the zone… We’re discussing the possibilities on 1912 
Why would you go under the control panel then?
Collecting the balls in Auto and then just going to shoot in teleop?
Edit: I’m not entirely sure on the feasibility of shooting it from the other side of the control panel, we haven’t tested out a limelight yet, so we don’t know if it can reliably reach that far. That’s why going under the control panel to get an easier shot could make sense.
The issue with C8 occurs when a team deliberately pushes an opponent so that the opponent violates either G10 or G11.
It’s similar to last year’s tactic of pushing an offensive bot across the midline to have two opponents defending, or pushing an offensive bot that has mechanisms outside the frame perimiter across the midline.
I don’t recall ever seeing a C8 violation called last year.
I do recall seeing one, and it was a yellow card. OC Regional, dead robot slammed into opponents Rocket, twice. Once would have been arguable either way. Twice, no question.
The basic idea would be that if your opponent dies there and you just start whamming on them, you could reasonably expect a C8 of some form. If they’re blocking you and you shove them away, or they go in and out and all that, no C8 at all.
Basically: If you’re going to get them to violate a rule, make sure that it at least looks like you’re trying to play the game.
There is the third situation during endgame. You could push a robot into the rendezvous point to hit one of your hanging alliance partners, just like you could push an opponent into the rocket or platform last year.
First violation of C8 is foul, repeated is tech foul. Last year first violation was foul but repeated was yellow card.
The refs typically concentrate their attention on robot to robot interactions but I wouldn’t want to rely on the ref seeing that I was pushed into violating G10 or G11 and just keep clear of those zones.
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We (1983) are considering this as a desired place to shoot from. However, considering that it is a slight angle from directly in front of the target (power port), power cells flying into the port will be more likely make it to the inner port (2 pts) rather than the outer port (3 pts). A shot directly in front of the port (by one post of the shield generator) has a better chance of being a 3 point shot than from the trench. So, shooting from there when you can. The rest from the trench.