[EricH]

I'm with Art on the side paneling. I distinctly remember a robot in AZ 2003 running on practice day, and something went haywire in automode. The robot went up the ramp, over the top, took a left on the other side, and right between the top and bottom rails of the field. It ended up under the bleachers before someone got to the E-Stop. Fortunately, nobody was hit.

Every year since then, there has been a shield of some form (wire or plastic) to prevent that. It isn't always shown on the drawings, though.

The amount of carpet outside the field is irrelevant, and even so, there isn't half the field shown. Usually there's no more than about a yard outside on either side, left from putting two rolls side-by-side and centering the field on them. That's no more than about a 3-4-yard section there total, at an unknown area of the field. It may in fact be the corners, or it may be the middle. Just as a note, those support pillars can (technically) go into just about any joint on the field border that isn't on the ends. And I think your angle is skewed; the ramp doesn't go into the field. Rather, there is a cutout in the lower part of the field border which can give that perception.

The key element is this: there is a gate in the side of the field. Next to that gate is clear of obstructions at the time shown in this CAD. Somewhere else on the field is the item in Hint #1. That is all we know at this time;usually, the rest of the hints come out on Saturday during Kickoff right before the curtain comes down.