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Official Q&A: VRC 2020-2021: Change Up

Usage Guidelines All Questions

752: LRT9 - touching scored balls


248A
24-Feb-2021

Since my question https://www.robotevents.com/VRC/2020-2021/QA/734) was not answered, let me ask it again regarding the touching of scored balls.

<LRT9> This rule is a modification of the definition of Scored. In a Live Remote Tournament, a Ball may be considered Scored in a Goal if it is still touching a Robot of either Alliance color. Note: The intent of this rule is for Head Referees to give Teams the “benefit of the doubt” if they inadvertently contact a Ball when attempting to Double / Quadruple a Goal.

There are two different interpretations of the rule: 1) In an attempt to touch the tower, you can touch a scored ball (sometimes that balls are sticking out). In this case touching the scored ball is OK and the scored ball and touch will be counted. 2) Touching all scored balls is now legal. This would allow teams to build a robot to cradle many balls to the goal to get them as scored. I could see 6, 7, 8 balls scored in a way that a robot is holding them into the scored position. On the Vex forum someone thinks they can get 15 (https://www.vexforum.com/t/live-remote-competition-6-ball-scoring/88845).

It appears with your ruling (https://www.robotevents.com/VRC/2020-2021/QA/731) about the autonomous can be touching seems to indicate that teams can now build robots to cradle balls and get 15 in a tower since you state "robot contact is irrelevant". If robot contact is indeed irrelevant the rules should be updated as such to make that clear.

The key sentence here is "if they inadvertently contact a Ball when attempting to Double / Quadruple a Goal.". Is it OK to purposefully touch/hold balls for the intent to score additional ones? If so, the LRT software will definitely need to be changed last I checked it only allows up to five.

Answered by Game Design Committee

Is it OK to purposefully touch/hold balls for the intent to score additional ones?

Yes, this is legal.

As noted in the response from this similar Q&A post:

The phrase "when attempting to Double or Quadruple" was intended to be a colloquial explanation for this rule modification, and reinforce that Head Referees will be providing "benefit of the doubt" often during a Live Remote Tournament. It was not intended to be an explicit caveat to the verbiage of LRT9.