A reminder before the big day

[EricH]

As seen in this sticky from the Rules/Strategy forum, people have an annoying tendency to not read the game manual.

Folks, I want to point out that the Game Manual is important. It has the field diagrams, the game rules, the robot rules, and the tournament structure. Yet every year, I come on after Kickoff and there are hundreds of questions about the game, the robot, the tournament, what can we use on the robot, can we do xyz [illegal] action, and the like. 99% of the time, the answers are in one place: the Game Manual.

Read the Manual before posting your question. 99% of the time, the rules will be crystal clear. The other 1% of the time, everyone else has the same question. So you might want to search before posting your question. Chances are somebody has asked and answered it already

I remember last year that someone was confused over a very clear rule. Somebody had said something at Kickoff that was--while not in conflict with the manual--interpreted the wrong way. This is a perfectly reasonable time to ask a question. However, simply saying something to the effect of, "What is the maximum size of the robot?" or "Can we use CO2?" will almost always get you a very annoyed-"sounding" "Read the Manual!!!!" from everyone around you.

What I'm trying to say is, hold off on posting rules questions until you have actually read the manual and checked for any other questions on that topic here. (Hint: when looking for an answer in the Manual, use <Ctrl-F> to look for a particular word or phrase that will help you.)