The Dead Ball Debacle

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by IronicDeadBird

Imagine you could have infinite dead balls, and infinite balls could be introduced into play.

Inbound -> Truss+attempt at catch or shot towards low goal -> Instant dead ball

This means on robot can then move the dead ball off the field without fear of being suppressed or disrupted because a dead ball is not a priority target. I even saw some robots truss and the ball bounced into the low goal if that ball is considered dead before it goes through the goal it doesn't need to be thrown back into play.
Truss and catch is awarded the second its done and dead ball resets the cycle anyway.

Just scoring normally is likely a better point value per time cycle.

Also, NO WAY teams will just let you get that ball of the field. Defenders will see offensive robots, and a ball. They will play defense. I don't see why they would stop because they know it's a dead ball. You can't play the match until that ball is gone, so they will be on it.

[IronicDeadBird]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Just scoring normally is likely a better point value per time cycle.

Also, NO WAY teams will just let you get that ball of the field. Defenders will see offensive robots, and a ball. They will play defense. I don't see why they would stop because they know it's a dead ball. You can't play the match until that ball is gone, so they will be on it.

Take your pick a dead ball being moved off the field or a robot setting up for a 2 assist high goal.
Which way do you send the defense?
Do you stop the ball that is worth nothing or the ball that has 2 assists on it?

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by IronicDeadBird

Take your pick a dead ball being moved off the field or a robot setting up for a 2 assist high goal.
Which way do you send the defense?
Do you stop the ball that is worth nothing or the ball that has 2 assists on it?

Unless they only want to do one cycle, at some point that dead ball has to come off once it has come loose.

[IronicDeadBird]

The concept would be to call a live ball in a robot dead to get the heat off the robot and start the next cycle.

[Siri]

Originally Posted by tanmaker

It is the drive team's responsibility to make sure the head referee knows they want to call a dead ball. Holding up the sign by itself won't work. You need to pound on the glass and have someone run to the nearest referee to get their attention. This is what I instructed teams to do in during the drivers meeting, and it worked really well. Generally pounding on the glass was enough for me to notice. If you just hold up the sign, you can only blame yourself for it taking a while for the pedestal to light up.

This needs to be clarified universally. At Clifton (which I was reffing), teams were informed they were not allowed to bang on the glass. Something about part of it being held together by zip ties and not to over-test it for safety reasons. Even so, most delays were not in recognition (plus, there were those teams that ignored this warning) but in logistics of execution.

I'm no fan of the dead ball situation, but I dislike it principally within a game I'm not fan of, which was never going to be played the way the GDC envisioned it. Certainly the current method is better than the nightmares of stuck and irreplaceable balls that were among my first visions ("this is a terrible idea", "why would I ref this?" and "welcome, 2007 destruction and penalty cornucopia") directly after the kickoff video.

I've Q&A'd whether the head ref can deny a correctly signaled (first request) dead ball--i.e. can an alliance "dead" a ball for strategic reasons besides a physical inability to free it. Q457.