The bolded part is what I’m responding to here, but the entire quote outlines the strategy.
This strategy is worth 9 points to your opponent and a DQ to you (plus however many fouls you rack up against your opponent to your partners–they don’t do you any good due to the red card). [R45] disallows this type of strategy. To be even more clear, see the following Q&A from Week 2:
Game - The Game » Penalties » G45
Q. **Is G45 violated if a robot herds balls into their alley and waits nearby so if/when an opposing robot attempts to retrieve said balls they can contact them resulting in a foul as per G44?
**A. Yes. It could also be considered trapping depending on how the strategy is executed.
In other words, this strategy is strongly discouraged, to say the least.
You could sit there the whole time, and not try to contact other robots, and probably not get penalized. That is true. However…
If you look at the answer given, there is a note about “trapping” being a possibility. See the blue box in [G22]. So, if you did this with more than 3 basketballs, you could get a foul per extra basketball.
The big D is our strategy this year. Inflatable tires to hammer over the barrier, a ball sweeper to collect balls. A hopper to dump them over the barrier or feed them to another bot, and the ability to essentially dump balls into the bottom hoop if needed. 2 CIM’s on a side for added torque. Our plan is to starve the other team of balls and keep teams from getting quickly back on the key. I think robots are going to have to be in very specific locations to shoot acurately. If you can interfere with that you have an effective defensive strategy. I also think you can be effective by running interference on your alliance side if you have a really effective shooter. Feed them balls so thay can shoot and let them stay on the key. We are talking about making our sweeper reversable so we can feel another bot directly. I think defense is going to be HUGE this year.
I don’t think I would need to avoid contact with opposing robot when in my lane. If I herd 5 balls into the lane (never touching more than 2 at a time), I should be able to strafe along the lane and block the opposing robots from getting to the balls. If we both end up in the lane and I push them away from the balls, I’d be pissed if I got a red card. The strategy isn’t to draw penalites but to block them from getting to the balls.
The best way to execute that strategy would be to remain outside the lane. If you remain in the lane, you are prohibiting contact and it would seem like you are trying to take advantage of [G44]. In my opinion, at least.
If you have 5 in the alley (even only contacting 3 at a time), there are multiple situational penalties that could be applied.
–[G22] for trapping/herding more than 3. Highly situational, so I’m not going to say for sure that it would be called. If called, 3 points/extra ball to your opponent.
–[G28] if you and an opponent make contact. Applied to them if you’re in your alley. 3 points/hit to you.
–[G45] if it’s deemed that you’re using [G28] as a strategy. 9 points to your opponent, red card to you. Like it or not, that’s how the rule is written. But the referees will have to make that determination.
So, if you have 5 balls in your alley, and you are blocking opponents from getting to them, you could end up with, depending on the situation:
-6 points for two extra balls in control of the robot
-9 points for using [G28] as a strategy
+3 points per hit
DQ for using [G28] as a strategy, which hurts your elimination chances.
Again, this is very situationally-dependent. If you’re just sitting there, blocking access to 5 basketballs that are relatively free-moving, and not making any moves to hit someone else, I’d put it at a 75% or greater chance you don’t get a red card, 50% or greater that you don’t get any penalties at all. If you’re sitting outside the alley, virtually 0% chance of penalty for that. If you’re actively defending, I’d give it a minimum 50-50 of your getting a penalty and more like 67% chance of penalty.
I really like where Madison is going with this. I would suggest instead of vertical risers, to have angled risers so that driving under the bridge deeper will tilt it down for your teammates. Have a flag at the transition from the 10" flat zone to the angled (probably 30 degrees should work well.
If you build this, you could be very helpful with teams that do not have a bridge lowering device.
There is also a very very very very simple devices that can be made that can score almost as many points as a bridge balance. Very very very very simple…
Let the intake push balls upwards onto a ramped box
When you run the intake backwards, the balls will roll out
Leave the top of the ramped box open so that human players can feed it
Make the drive as powerful as possible
Make the footprint as small as possible
Make the robot as heavy as possible
In a match:
At the beginning of each match, cross the bump
Keep opposing robots away from their key with ramming defense
When opposing robots miss their shots, grab the rebounds
When they score, go over to your inbounder station to receive balls
Ferry balls back to your own side of the field and give them to partners
Rinse, repeat
At the end of the match, lower the bridge and get on
Before alliance selection, sell yourself as a second pick. The above robot, with a practiced driver and the ability to cooperate with other teams, will almost certainly make it to eliminations and might even get snapped up near the bottom of the first round of selections. If you can’t build the intake roller, at least build the ramped box with some sort of release and you’ll only go a little later. If you can’t lower the bridge or build the intake, at least build a powerful pushing drive and you might make it as a very late pick–this could actually give you a better chance at winning the tournament due to the serpentine draft.