Loophole?
 

Hey, when you "accidentally" knock another alliance's trackball out of the ring, they said they'll replace it "when it's safe." Do you think they'll stop the clock to do it, or will this be an evil way to burn time?
Oh, and I'm not evil enough to think of this, it was my friend. It's not even close to gracious professionalism. And we're a Christian school, for goodness sakes.

Re: Loophole?
 

i doubt they will stop the clock to put the ball back in, but as you said it is very against the spirit of the competition. Additionally, it seems that it would be rather difficult to force a ball out of the field without possessing it, and thus incurring a ten point penalty.

Re: Loophole?
 

It'll also be pretty obvious if you are continuously dumping balls out of the field.

Re: Loophole?
 

They will not stop the clock. This has been seen in many years gone by, and although this is one of the few years with a limited amount of scoring objects as opposed to say last year with a plethora of tubes available, the "when it's safe" statement will be when someone (most of the time a field reset crew member) can grab the ball from wherever it's rolled or bounced to off the field, and put it back into play.

Note, the balls will not be put back on the field at any specific entry point, but more often than not when I myself as a field reset crew was responsible for something like this in the past, I had put it back in as close to where it left the field without endangering myself by reaching into the field next to/ or near a robot.

Be assured they will be put back into play randomly placed, and as fast as possible, and if you see this happening, don't try to drive your robot to where you think the field crew would be putting it in, just give them room to put it in, and then continue to go try and catch it and play as normal.

Re: Loophole?
 

With the taller walls around the field this year, I suspect most balls will be reentered at the field gates.

Re: Loophole?
 

My guess is that they will have an additional supply on trackballs on hand if replacing the current one will take too much time. I think they'll just basically throw or lightly toss the trackball back into the field in a random spot.

As for intentionally knocking balls out of the field, I can imagine a penalty if it's done frequently or obviously not a mistake or robot error.

This is a good question though as there are only 4 balls on the field....perhaps someone should q&a this?

Re: Loophole?
 

Your valuable match time might be better spent hurdling your own balls, if you have a machine capable of intentionally tossing balls out of the arena!

Re: Loophole?
 

Likely--though the manual does say something about "as close as possible to where it left the field."

Re: Loophole?
 

<G30> specifies that "The TRACKBALL will be placed at the approximate location where it exited."

Re: Loophole?
 

Why waste the time to try to get you opponents balls out. This game is supposed to be very offensive, so you should redirect resources into getting points for yourself. The game is not going to be won based on who prevents more scores, but who can score better.

Re: Loophole?
 

If you knock it out of the ring, the reset team will probably not put it back in the track from outside the field. The will probably put it back in near the forward movement friendly field entrance when its safe. Putting it back on the overpass is not easy and may conflict in scoring.

Re: Loophole?
 

Referees aren't fools. They will notice that it is your strategy after a couple times.

Judges will do the same and will see your team going gainst the ideas of gracious professionalism.

This is not a strategy which you would be proud to say you rode all the way to a gold medal or even a win.

Finally, "Loopholes" are probably not left there on purpose by the GDC, especially in this case. GP rocks. Embrace it.:D