Match Play Problems

[mott]

Originally Posted by Bill_B

Do not put the ball out of bounds!

The problem with this recommendation is that FIRST clearly intended the Human Players to be a big part of the game, based on the HP zone placements and the number of rules outlining their roles. A significant number of the "lost" balls I saw were simply poor quality passes to the HP.

This is an EASY problem to fix. As mentioned in another thread, there should be at least 1 "extra" ball standing by near each Human Player zone and near a field reset volunteer, ready for immediate delivery to the Human Player in that zone. Much like the approach used in most professional soccer matches.

If that HP zone is unoccupied (not sure why this might happen), maybe a rules adjustment needs to just allow for the field reset person to just toss that game piece back onto the field. This would seem to be a reasonable "penalty" for a game piece leaving the field without a HP there expecting to be receiving it!

The bigger problem I saw on day 1 of the competitions was the lengthy delay in re-lighting the pedestal at the proper completion of a cycle. This will become a killer if not corrected (this is also addressed in another thread).