Answered: <SG6> Clarification

[koberd]

I posted this in the General Nothing But Net Forum but Believe it should be posted here in retrospect.

We are at a competition this past weekend and it was deemed illegal for a team to load a driver load into their robot and then leave the loading zone to play on the field with the ball and then return to the loading zone to load more balls. When we asked them what rule this was they cite <SG6>

<SG6> Any Scoring Objects introduced during the Match as Driver Control Loads must be either gently placed on a Robot of your own color touching the Loading Zone or gently entered into the Loading Zone of your own color, by a Student Drive Team Member during the Driver Controlled Period. The intent of this rule is to allow teams to introduce objects into play, but not to impart energy on the Scoring Object which will cause it to end up in a position outside the Loading Zone. It is expected that teams may momentarily break the plane of the field while legally introducing Driver Control Loads. Teams should be very mindful of <S1> during this process.
Minor violations of this rule that do not affect the match will result in a warning. Egregious (match affecting) offenses will result in a Disqualification. Teams that receive multiple warnings may also receive a Disqualification at the head referee’s discretion.

When we read this rule we don’t see anything that would indicate the above actions should be deemed illegal. We also don’t see any other forum posts where this particular issue has been addressed.

Please advise.

[Karthik]

@koberd

We are at a competition this past weekend and it was deemed illegal for a team to load a driver load into their robot and then leave the loading zone to play on the field with the ball and then return to the loading zone to load more balls.

This is a legal and normal strategy.