Official Q&A: VRC 2020-2021: Change Up Usage Guidelines
All Questions

LRT - Extra Balls on Edge Goals

EZ
2 weeks ago

A student asked if this ball was scored, and I could not give an answer. With more teams this year putting fields in rooms that hardly fit them, this is happening more and more frequently.

Scored

A Ball status. A Ball is considered Scored in a Goal if it is not touching a Robot of the same color as the Ball and meets all of the following criteria. -The Ball is fully or partially within the outer edge of the Goal. -The Ball is fully below the upper edge of the Goal. -The Ball is not contacting the foam tiles outside of the Goal.

Clarification of what determines “fully or partially within the outer edge of the Goal” www.robotevents.com/VRC/2020-2021/QA/690

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.

Clarification of LRT9 www.robotevents.com/VRC/2020-2021/QA/731

SG6

Keep Balls in the field. Teams may not intentionally remove Balls from the field. While Balls may accidentally leave the field when attempting to Score, doing so intentionally or repeatedly would be a violation of this rule. Balls that leave the field during Match play, intentionally or unintentionally, will be returned to the field at the location nearest the point at which they exited. Referees will return the Balls to the field when it is deemed safe to do so, at the leisure of the referee.

Minor violations of this rule that do not affect the Match will result in a warning. Match Affecting offenses will result in a Disqualification. Teams that receive multiple warnings may also receive a Disqualification at the Head Referee’s discretion.

S2

Stay inside the field. If a Robot is completely out-of-bounds (outside the playing field), it will be Disabled for the remainder of the Match. Note: The intent is NOT to penalize Robots for having mechanisms that inadvertently cross the field perimeter during normal game play

The image attached meets the definition of Scored due to Q&A 690, meets the modified definition of Scored in LRT9, and follows Q&A 731. SG6 determines if this ball is scored.

The precedent that I believe we have is the following:

  1. Turning Point, balls that were caught in the net but behind the field perimeter
  2. Tower Takeover, stacks that leaned outside of the volume of the field perimeter.
  3. Round Up, rings on posts on the walls
  4. Gateway, 1107B putting objects on top of goals
  5. Toss Up, big balls on top of chutes
  6. Skyrise, cubes on outer posts
  7. Turning Point, high caps

My question is the following:

  1. How far out of the volume of the field does a ball have to be for it to be considered out of the field, and needs a Referee to return the ball "to the field at the location nearest the point at which they exited"?

  2. Is the bounding box for Robots leaving the field (S2) and Balls leaving the field (SG6) different?

Thank you for your time, and thank you to Brad Lauer and the REC Foundation for helping fix the issue I was experiencing when posting this Q&A.

img img img

SG6  
Answered by Game Design Committee

Thank you for the detailed question and quoted rules.

The following "blue box" that is found in the VEX IQ Challenge Game Manual should apply in this scenario. We have replaced the word "Riser" (the VIQC game object) with "Ball", and re-numbered the referenced rules to match the VRC manual.

If a Ball is on its way out of the Field (as determined by the Head Referee), but is deflected back into the field by a Driver, field monitor, ceiling/wall, or other external factor, <SG6> would apply. This Ball should be considered “out of the field” and removed by the Head Referee. If the redirection occurred due to contact with a Driver, it will be at the Head Referee’s discretion whether <SG6> or <G9> should apply.

Therefore, the Ball in your attached images would be considered "out of the Field", and would not be considered Scored.

(as a note, the two Game Manuals should generally be considered independent of each other. This is a rare case where we are able to borrow the VIQC verbiage, since it has already been written for this scenario, and it will be added to the VRC Game Manual in the future)