pic: Kit ball vs. New ball
 

Re: pic: Kit ball vs. New ball
 

Ours balls don't look that bad yet, but we're expecting the field ones to be in pretty bad shape.

Re: pic: Kit ball vs. New ball
 

Hopefully Not, a fortune on Kit balls this year?

Re: pic: Kit ball vs. New ball
 

Ours are pretty bad but man what did you do to make them that bad?

Re: pic: Kit ball vs. New ball
 

Our head mentor said "look these balls wont smash" and stomped on it. It broke in 3 places. I can expect them to be roughed up but cannot imagine quite like that.

Re: pic: Kit ball vs. New ball
 

That is one poor ball...

i wonder what it takes to get them to look that bed.

Re: pic: Kit ball vs. New ball
 

We never got ours to deflate... :D

Re: pic: Kit ball vs. New ball
 

Ours aren't quite that bad...yet.

Blip is going to make millions off of us this year...Investing in their stock might be worthwile.

Re: pic: Kit ball vs. New ball
 

That ball has been through a lot, all of our prototypes used it and it has been the practice ball for the kids. I doubt they will get that bad before being removed but it's possible.

Re: pic: Kit ball vs. New ball
 

Why this ball has certainly seen a considerable amount of abuse, none of it was that far out of the question of what a normal match would be.

This ball has been kicked, tossed, and shot around the lab since kickoff to reach this point. While I'm sure not too many balls will end up like this after a match, they certainly can't handle an extended amount of abuse.

Re: pic: Kit ball vs. New ball
 

One has to wonder... is this the worst kids gift of all time? "Wild Time" Orbit Ball... I can imagine giving this ball to a child and having them break it in less than 2 minutes. What "wild time" could a person actually have with this ball before breaking it? Misnomer? False advertising? :confused:

BTW: I am in the picture, to the left of the Northeastern president, behind the robot. Cool!

Re: pic: Kit ball vs. New ball
 

im thinking first will need to have a truck load of balls per a competition at least so that they dont run out...

Re: pic: Kit ball vs. New ball
 

Yikes. That ball has seen the end of its days for sure. I'm guessing they'll take the balls off the field before they look like that (or I will? I'm field repair/reset at CTR :) ).

Re: pic: Kit ball vs. New ball
 

I can almost gurantee that FIRST will have plenty of these balls. Only b/c I know they had a **** load of this big balls last year and tubes the year before and so on and so forth. Everyone remember the poofs right lol. FIRST makes sure they have plenty on hand and then some. I won't say any numbers b/c idk any right now but they set X Amount for the Regional, X Amount extra for the same regional.

In short they should have plenty. Besides these shouldn't be too roughed up since things are a bit different this year.

Re: pic: Kit ball vs. New ball
 

I've learned a lot about the breaking points of these balls, but I've not seen it that bad. I've played baseball, basketball, Moonball(a new sport I invented using the prototype arms of years past) and been able to fit a ball over a person's head. But the same ball I've done that with is still good enough to test. How you did that is remarkable.