2X Ball Into the Ball Release

[MikeDubreuil]

Let's say you're a robot and you want to get rid of the 2X balls. You have to cap a goal. If you place a 2X out of the playing field it will be returned. But what if your team wanted the ball out of the game. You could put it into the ball release, no?

[Cory]

You could try, but if I remember correctly, the gate that holds the balls into the corrall stays open after the balls drop, so it would just roll back down.

Cory

[MikeDubreuil]

Originally Posted by Cory

You could try, but if I remember correctly, the gate that holds the balls into the corrall stays open after the balls drop, so it would just roll back down.

Cory

The gate does stay down. However, I think you could actually place the ball right on the gate. The gate looks to be be parallel with the floor and not angled down (like it probably should). This issue caused problems at the BAE regional, a volunteer would have to shake a support pole violently to try to get stuck balls to fall onto the playing field.

[Elgin Clock]

I believe at all the regionals I have attended (re: NJ, and UTC) that the door on the corral fell and was perpendicular with the playing field (darn gravity).

I guess your field up in BAE must have been broken!!

I think that also if you try to put the ball up there, then that would be considered going out of bounds and may be at the ref's discretion to disable your robot.

[moogleslair]

UCF's field the door fell to a horizontal position. Either way back to the begining of this thread. It would be really hard to balance that ball there.

[Aaron Lussier]

Originally Posted by MikeDubreuil

The gate does stay down. However, I think you could actually place the ball right on the gate. The gate looks to be be parallel with the floor and not angled down (like it probably should). This issue caused problems at the BAE regional, a volunteer would have to shake a support pole violently to try to get stuck balls to fall onto the playing field.

Mike,

I was on Field Reset all three days at BAE, the only day we needed to shake the pole was on Thursday, the pratice day. All other days it worked flawlessly to my receloction.

-Aaron

[MikeDubreuil]

Attached is a pic of our drive team in operation in Annapolis. You get a pretty good shot of the ball release. For the purpose of this thread, let's assume that the ball release can support a 2x ball. Is it a good strategy, or even legal?

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by MikeDubreuil

Attached is a pic of our drive team in operation in Annapolis. You get a pretty good shot of the ball release. For the purpose of this thread, let's assume that the ball release can support a 2x ball. Is it a good strategy, or even legal?

The only rule I would be concerned with is The out of bounds rule that I previously mentioned.

It may also be deemed a safety issue as well. We very well don't want a robot to drop the ball over the wall and on to the drivers while trying to put it up there.

That is, if you COULD do it with the door being how it is.

[MikeDubreuil]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

The only rule I would be concerned with is The out of bounds rule that I previously mentioned.

It may also be deemed a safety issue as well. We very well don't want a robot to drop the ball over the wall and on to the drivers while trying to put it up there.

That is, if you COULD do it with the door being how it is.

Right, you would be going out of bounds. But doesn't the rule allow you to go out of bounds? I think you are only disabled if your robot touches the ground or there is a safety concern.

[Cory]

A rule states that a robot may not cross the top of the 7' wall. I would assume that since the big ball is part of the robot, when being held by it (As I recall from an update/Q&A, I think), they would disable your robot for crossing the plane of the 7' wall.

Cory

[MikeDubreuil]

Originally Posted by Cory

A rule states that a robot may not cross the top of the 7' wall. I would assume that since the big ball is part of the robot, when being held by it (As I recall from an update/Q&A, I think), they would disable your robot for crossing the plane of the 7' wall.

Cory

And the dream dies. Thanks Cory and everyone else for your help. The second you think you have found a loophole in the rules, FIRST is already two steps ahead.

[Jones571]

You would also at least get a 10pt penalty for crossing the plane of the player station. If not disabled because that would be deliberate it happened to several teams in the Midwest regional I remember 45 doing it a few times.

[AmyPrib]

Originally Posted by Jones571

You would also at least get a 10pt penalty for crossing the plane of the player station. If not disabled because that would be deliberate it happened to sever teams in the Midwest regional I remember 45 doing it a few times.

Yeah if you break the plane of the 7ft wall with your robot or ball held by the robot, it's a 10pt penalty each time, not dq. We got that penalty twice in one match (within a few seconds of each other) due to a little craziness while driving in that area... No harm done...

[Heretic121]

Originally Posted by Cory

A rule states that a robot may not cross the top of the 7' wall. I would assume that since the big ball is part of the robot, when being held by it (As I recall from an update/Q&A, I think), they would disable your robot for crossing the plane of the 7' wall.

Cory

this is true, but with our robot, we kinda spit the ball out of our arm, so we can shoot it out while completly in the field along with the 2x ball still in our arm...

[AmyPrib]

Originally Posted by Heretic121

this is true, but with our robot, we kinda spit the ball out of our arm, so we can shoot it out while completly in the field along with the 2x ball still in our arm...

Well, we were not disabled. I read the rule as - if you're robot crosses the wall plane (ball chute, or above wall) it's a 10pt penalty. You are not disabled. It's not necessarily deliberate, especially if you're being pushed with a ball up in the air. You will be disabled if your robot touches the floor outside the playing field. However, the point was brought up that the 2x ball is only part of your robot in the case of goaltending. So, I'm looking for an update or rule that says otherwise, because I haven't seen it say 2x ball is part of the robot always.

Capping an opponents goal is completely legal to do, to prevent them from scoring balls. However, if your robot is still holding that ball and they shoot, bounces off the 2x you hold, it's goaltending. If you're fast enough to cap it before they can shoot, then it's perfectly legal. But you can't just hold the ball over the goal. I haven't seen many people do it, because the risk of goaltending is pretty high for the amount of time it usually takes for someone to cap anothers goal successfully.

This is sorta getting off topic of the original thread though. All the rules/penalties have been discussed earlier, and I think they're pretty well written now in the updated version of the rules. I want to make sure at nationals about the rule of 2x ball being part of the robot.