I can hear the howls already but I’m afraid we have to add a rule…We discovered a critical oversight in the rules today when somebody asked us if they were allowed to store more than one ball inside a robot; there was suppose to be a rule saying only one ball can be held by a robot at a time but the rule was inadvertently left out. This rule was agreed upon last month when the committee wrote the rules but somehow it was left out during the rewrite. We hate to add it in at this late date in the build process but the committee feels it will ruin the game if we don’t, so here it is:
A ROBOT MAY ONLY STORE ONE BALL AT A TIME; IF A ROBOT SOMEHOW ACQUIRES AN ADDITIONAL BALL OR BALLS, THE ROBOT WILL HAVE 5 SECONDS TO GET RID OF THE ADDITIONAL ONE(S). IF THE ADDITIONAL BALL(S) ARE NOT OUT OF THE ROBOT’S POSSESSION WITHIN 5 SECONDS, THE ADDITIONAL BALL(S) WILL BE REMOVED FROM THE ROBOT BY THE REFEREES AND PUT BACK IN PLAY. ROBOTS MAY NOT STORE ANY BALLS WHILE IN THEIR OWN RESTRICTED ZONES. IF A ROBOT ACQUIRES ANY BALL(S) IN ITS OWN RESTRICTED ZONE, IT HAS 5 SECONDS TO LEAVE THE ZONE OR GET RID OF THE BALL(S).
So, a robot could release an additional ball before the 5 second limit, let it roll for a moment, out of its possession, then pick it up again and get a fresh 5 second count. Or, a robot could “herd” an additional ball down the field, much like a soccer player does: it just can’t maintain direct, sustained POSSESSION. The human players on an alliance are not allowed to store ANY balls and must adhere to the 5 second rule always, whether they gained possession of the ball from the referee, a robot, or by catching an errant throw from their opponents. Note: the ALLIANCE must have the ball out of its human players’ possession within 5 seconds. This means that human players on an alliance can not simply pass a ball back and forth to each other and expect to get around the 5 second rule: we want to keep these balls in play!