An episode of the Sunday night FRC Roundtable for FIRST Robotics students and mentors. Recorded in January of 2025 this discussion centers on the new FIRST rules for bumpers published in 2024. John Stratis of Team 2177 The Robettes leads the discussion. John is also a FIRST robot inspector. He reviews a brief history of bumpers - none were required historically and now they are part of the design challenge and not a specific set of design requirements. John shares the 2024 bumper rule updates, common points of confusion where teams were not understanding the bumper rules and the FIRST rationale for why some of these changes came to be.