Caution: Keep your hands out of the ball counters!

[Billfred]

During one of our qualification matches at Palmetto, a human player stuck their hand inside the ball counter to unjam a couple of balls stuck in the goal. The field reacted to this wrong-way motion by deducting two points from our score.

We lost the match 2-1; had we won 3-2, it alone would've nudged us up from third seed to second. Naturally, since this was automatically done by the field, there was nothing to review with the head referee.

(To be crystal clear, nobody on Los Pollos Locos has any beef with the head referee or any other member of the crew at Palmetto over this event. I only share the background to better explain the issue and its significance.)

This is my opportunity to warn all human players yet to run of the procedure laid out in the blue box following G15:

In the event that BALLS become dammed in the GOAL at the mouth of the BALL COUNTER, a HUMAN PLAYER may use the handle end of the TRIDENT to dislodge the BALLS by placing it through the hole in the clear Lexan cover on top of the GOAL. Only balls dislodged before the automatic counter stops counting will be SCORED. Note that the TRIDENT or anything else may not be placed through this access hole at any other time or the TEAM will be charged with a violation of <S02>. Similarly, when dislodging BALLS, if the TRIDENT comes in contact with a ROBOT, <S02> will be invoked.

Learn from our mistakes!