Suppose there are 7 containers in a scoring zone, arranged as illustrated below, that is a 3-container high stack made up of a pyramid containing 5 containers, and 2 other containers in the zone:
0
0 0
0 0 0 0
Section 7.6 says no containers in the stack count as part of the base score, so the base score is 2, and the final score is 3 x 2 = 6
Rule SC8 says take the total number of containers (7), subtract the height of the stack (3) to get the base score. So the base score = 7-3 = 4. Then multiply this by the stack height. Score is 4 x 3 = 12.
Clearly one of these scores is incorrect.
I suspect that it is FIRST's intention that rule SC8 prevails, but it is confusing to have contradictory scoring information also in section 7.6
A prettier picture is shown at:
http://www.skene.org/robots/Final-Configuration.jpg