[jvriezen]

The way I read that update, the following could occur, which I don't think the GDC intended:

Three balls are pre-loaded, none of them are scored in autonomous. One is picked up during teleop, and gets 'stuck.' Alliance declares ball dead. Two balls are still rolling on the field. Ref lights up pedestal to start the first cycle. This is consistent with the update.

I suspect they should have said the ref won't light it up until all autonomous balls are either scored or declared dead (of course, only one can be declared dead.)

In the mean time, if you want to get a cycle going early after having a bad time at Auto, just load one ball and declare it dead.

Even if that fix is made, the following scenario is possible:

One ball is left unscored after auto, and rolls to the far end of the field, so that it needs to be taken across the field to score. (No humans are stationed nearby) A working robot could load the ball, declare it dead so that a higher scoring ball (the cycle ball) can be introduced and then score the dead ball (for no points) after making the cross field trip. Meanwhile, the new cycle ball is already inbounded and maybe had toss/catch points before the dead ball is cleared off the field.

What if a dead ball comes loose and finds its way into the opponent's low goal via an unlucky bounce? That is not an approved way to clear a dead ball (must be only by giving it to human or putting it into the alliance's goal.) So technically, this is equivalent to a second stuck ball and the team is done scoring for the match.