IRI Finals Question

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

As I previously explained earlier in the thread, 2056's catapult deflected when the ball hit it. They didn't just bounce the ball off a rigid part of the robot - they bounced the ball of their catapult while it was in the "just fired" position. As the catapult went in and back out, the robot was LAUNCHING the ball and it counts as an assist.

Realistically, no part of the robot is perfectly rigid. Throwing a ball at a goalie pole, or side shield, or any other number of non-spring loaded mechanisms would also deflect and bounce the ball back to a desired location (if done properly).

IMO, it was a slippery slope to allow those short bounce-off type possessions because from the get go because you can get so deep into the 'technically its deflecting' part of the rule description.

That being said, it was a tough nuance of the game that was difficult to parse out, and it seemed those type of possessions were being called consistently. Thats all you can really ask for in weird situations.

-Brando