Has FIRST Ever Changed Rules During Nationals?

This is my first year involved in FIRST, and I’ve been reading ChiefDelphi for a few months now. There’s been a lot of discussion about collusion at regionals, and most of the people here seem to be against it. I’ve also heard complaints about the scoring in the finals (it’s been suggested that best 2 out of 3 be used instead of QPs to determine the winner). Apparently, a few rule changes could make the nationals more interesting and/or fairer.

Have there been any previous seasons where FIRST has changed the rules of the game during regionals or nationals? If so, why?

In 1999 they switched finals alliances from 2 to 3 teams after the second week of regionals. I believe they did this because too many alliances were losing because one of the teams’ robots got broken such that they could not play competetively. That’s the most glaring change that FIRST made in between competitions that I know of.

Matt

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=157751#post157751