Re: Ball bouncing out of the high Goal
 

Not quite - a boulder got stuck on swinging chains in the high goal. From my vantage point at the scoring table, it looked like a couple of the chains swung together and almost cradled the boulder by wrapping around it - either way, it was pretty stuck. A field resetter tried to dislodge the boulder with a pole, but unfortunately the boulder fell back into the field, requiring the match to be stopped.

Re: Ball bouncing out of the high Goal
 

Yes, they only count a boulder if it falls down the tower and passes through the sensors before rolling into the corral. The chains do stop almost all of the boulders from bouncing out, but there are times when I have seen a boulder launched into the high goal when the bot isn't quite square with the goal, and the ball will pass in one and out the other, and I have also scene a boulder bounce back out off of the chains. This happened to our bot maybe twice at the Northern Lights Regional. I don't think it has so much to do with the power of the launcher, as it does just plain bad luck.

Re: Ball bouncing out of the high Goal
 

+1 this. While reducing strength will help, it'd be very hard to develop a way that completely eliminates the possibility of boulders falling out. Our shooter this year was fairly weak yet we had a few problems with balls bouncing out of the high goal. A boulder bouncing out of the high goal in this match costed us the quarterfinals.

Re: Ball bouncing out of the high Goal
 

I have lost count of how many balls we have had pop out. Still less than a dozen overall though I think. We do have a fairly strong shot. I think you just shrug and focus on getting those points back. I don't really think it is something that the GDC can completely eliminate. The chains certainly help. Most of the time I think, as someone mentioned, our shots just rolled across the back and out.

Re: Ball bouncing out of the high Goal
 

In your example. The basketball never entirely goes below the rim. So that's an easy one. The more I think about my Jagbots. The degree of difficulty shot is rated at 4.6. So they should have gotten 46 points for great effort. Thank you so very much. Thomas (just give me a crabcake) McCubbin

Re: Ball bouncing out of the high Goal
 

In your example, the ball never passed the scoring apparatus on its way to the corral. So it was never scored.

Re: Ball bouncing out of the high Goal
 

We just don't shoot such that our (nearly 45 mph velocity) shot trajectory is perpendicular to the back board and we've stopped having bounce outs. Every shot that we took that went into the high goal at our state championship event stayed in.

This isn't just a FIRST lesson, it's a life lesson. A lot of times you just have to play with the cards you've been dealt and do your best despite unanticipated challenges.