So this reminds me of 2012 (Rebound Rumble) with how the Alley worked. In Rebound Rumble balls we're fed by human players into field through the Alley, much like the secret passages this year. There was a rule that that stated you could not contact your opponents in their already, however it was much clearer than this year's rule:
Quote:
G28: Robots may not touch an opponent Robot in contact with its Key, Alley, or Bridge.
Violation: Foul; Technical-Foul for purposeful, consequential contact.
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and it had a blue box that specified:
Quote:
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This rule applied at all times, no matter who initiates the contact, see G44
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G44 being :
Quote:
G44: Generally, a rule violation by an Alliance that was directly caused by actions of the opposing Alliance will not be
penalized. Rule [G28] is an exception to this rule.
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In practice it was basically that you could be in your opponent's alley, but if they went in there you better get out as soon as possible because if they touched you, you would get a penalty.
Now a previous year's game rule has no precedence on this year's game, but seeing as that how the GDC has ran the game before, I wouldn't be surprised if that's what they do this year as well.
But the fact that the GDC didn't specifically do that this year, might also mean they had something else in mind for this year's game.
In any case this year's rules needs clarification on that point, and I'd just wait for the Q&A as this will probably be answered and clarified early (maybe even with a post from Frank about it).