[getbak]

There are some penalties that are a fixed time plus the time gained by taking the penalty.

In the past, we've seen teams get penalized for taking a cab when they were supposed to walk or take public transit. In those cases, the penalty has been 30 minutes plus the time saved by taking a cab.


They should do the same for all these "strategic" penalties. It should be the fixed penalty length plus the time gained.

I would calculate the time gained by taking the longest time spent to complete the task by any of the teams that were successful and subtract the amount of time the penalized team spent attempting the task. That way, if a team gives up after hours of frustration and doesn't gain any time by taking the penalty, they'd only have to serve the penalty time. If a team just shows up and sees that every other team has been working for two hours and still isn't getting anywhere and decides to take the penalty right away, they'd get a big time hit.

The way it is now, it rewards the teams who quit earlier. If they changed it to the way I suggested, a team that quits earlier would get the worst penalty.