I assume this was received by everyone in the latest email blast, but if not, here it is.
Quote:
Attention teams:
FIRST has discovered an issue with the 13" balls that all teams need to know about.
The 13" ball that you received in your kit of parts has the same specifications as the 13" balls you will encounter in the regional competitions. Some of the balls that you may have purchased through Palos Sports may be slightly different.
This was caused by the fact that the demand for 13" balls wiped out the supply of the exact ball and the only alternative was to switch to a ball that was very close. Palos Sports has been informing teams that ordered balls in the last couple of days but teams that ordered last week may not know this. Because these balls are produced in China and other distant lands, replenishment in a timely manner is difficult to impossible.
The "new" ball is slightly heavier and a bit firmer. These differences can potentially affect a team in some of the following ways (this is not meant to be all of the potential effects):
Shooting by the human player - the ball is heavier and firmer;
Robots pushing balls - robots may ride up on the softer competition ball and not on the firmer ball;
Robot mechanisms that pick up balls - the difference in firmness could affect these mechanisms.
We will review this issue in the Team Update scheduled for Tuesday, 1/27/2004 but we felt it was critical to contact all teams as soon as possible with this information.
Thank you.
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So we still don't know what ball to order...
--Petey