[EricH]

I would say that the GDC has chosen the green carpet because it's a lot easier than the middle of the bump to see. After all, if you're coming out of the tunnel, the green carpet is obvious. Ditto if you came down a bump, upright or not. The spec in 6.2.1 is that the bumps divide the zones, nothing about boundaries.

I think, in regards to your first point, that that is one of the few messups in the Manual. Taking it as we've been taking it, it should read that "only one robot from an alliance may be in the opposing alliance's zone at a time". Taking it as written, it means one offense vs. up to 3 defense. Update #1 will hopefully address this. (If not, I expect both Q&A and Update #2 to get to this topic.)