Ok, the official rules need to be quoted here. There's too much confusion with bridges and alliance bridges and the animation. Please, read the manual.
I believe there are only two rules that relate.
Quote:
[G01]
When placed on the Court, each Robot must be in compliance with all Robot rules, may not exceed 60 in. tall, and have all appendages within its Frame Perimeter. The Robot must be in contact with its Key, and may contain up to two Basketballs.
|
Quote:
[G05]
Each Bridge will be preset with two Basketballs. Basketballs allotted to Robots that are not used, will be preset on the Coopertition Bridge.
|
2 balls x 6 robots
plus
2 balls x 3 Bridges
=
18 total
Extras not used by the robots will simply be added to the middle Coopertition Bridge instead.
This total excludes any that the human players might have. I believe there are no rules on that, so therefore the only balls available at the beginning are the ones mentioned by the above two rules. So, human players don't get any balls at the beginning.