During a recent tournament I attended, some of the field reset crew were shooting the balls that left the field into a collection box. Unfortunately, a couple of the balls that were thrown at the box ended up returning to the field. While <G9> states that “Scoring Objects that leave the playing field will not be returned to the field,” does anything happen to the balls that were unintentionally returned to the field? Also, what happens if a ball that returns to the field in this manner lands in a goal?
Referees should attempt to retrieve and remove any balls that were returned to the field by mistake, however only if it is safe to do so and can be done without interfering with the Robots.
If the Scored Ball is determined to be match affecting, the match should be replayed.