The chains were most definitely in place at Kickoff in Manchester. Here's the
proof these pictures have been up on our website since the day after Kickoff.
By the way, has anyone considered that these chains are another way to ensure that robots aren't shooting "hot" (faster than allowed)? The chains act as energy dampers to dissipate the balls energy, but if the ball is traveling too fast it will bounce back off the chains. In the web cast from VCU it sure looked like there were a few robots shooting too fast and they paid the price. There was a lot of traffic earlier on how FIRST would enforce the speed limits. By having clearly defined limits on shooting speed, do you really think that enforcing it was overlooked?
You should know by now that the games are designed very carefully and EVERY detail is probably well thought out and for a reason. What looks like an easy game or task may very well have some difficult problems to overcome.
Afterall, this is
The Hardest Fun You'll Ever Have. 