Re: Balls bouncing out of goal
 

The chains were most definitely in place at Kickoff in Manchester. Here's the proof these pictures have been up on our website since the day after Kickoff. :cool:

By the way, has anyone considered that these chains are another way to ensure that robots aren't shooting "hot" (faster than allowed)? The chains act as energy dampers to dissipate the balls energy, but if the ball is traveling too fast it will bounce back off the chains. In the web cast from VCU it sure looked like there were a few robots shooting too fast and they paid the price. There was a lot of traffic earlier on how FIRST would enforce the speed limits. By having clearly defined limits on shooting speed, do you really think that enforcing it was overlooked?

You should know by now that the games are designed very carefully and EVERY detail is probably well thought out and for a reason. What looks like an easy game or task may very well have some difficult problems to overcome.

Afterall, this is The Hardest Fun You'll Ever Have. :)

Re: Balls bouncing out of goal
 

Good - the chains were definately on the centergoal at the Kickoff in Manchester. That was built just as an official one was meant to be built.
No one is disagreeing with that.

Yes - I agree that the chains are there to deter balls from flying straight into the goal - hitting the screen and bouncing back out. I also witnessed the same thing at the VCU webcast as far as ball velocity (too fast). Someone in the other thread similar to this one mentioned that balls shot too slow also bounced back out - so it is obvious that a number of factors may cause the balls to bounce back out.

Yes - this is something that everyone should have considered as part of the challenge. Just as lighting conditions and the use of the camera in poorly lit venues were, last year.

"Everything" can be said is part of the challenge - everything that you can think of that is.

So, if I have this right, the chains are the conditions for entry into the goal that needs to be considered along with the aximum 12m/s exit velocity - which is primarily for safety purposes.