Answered: White Ball in Programming Skills

[Mike_Betts]

How and when may the white ball be pre-loaded or introduced during the Programming Skills Challenge?

[Karthik]

How and when may the white ball be pre-loaded or introduced during the Programming Skills Challenge?

Looking first at Appendix C - The Programming Skills Challenge in the section titled “Programming Skills Challenge Rules”:

Please note that all rules from “The Game” section of the manual apply to the Programming Skills Challenge, unless otherwise specified.

The subsequent rules do not specify anything in regards to the introduction of the large ball. Thus we go to the VEX Clean Sweep Manual, Section 2.

<SG3> Each alliance MUST introduce the large ball into the field of play sometime in the last thirty seconds (0:30) of the match. The large ball must be introduced by a coach on the alliance.

To be eligible to be scored, the large ball must be introduced in one of the following ways.
• Gently placed onto the alliance’s large ball introduction zone.
• Gently placed directly “into / onto” a robot which is contacting the alliance’s large ball introduction zone.

The intent of this rule is that the large ball is gently introduced into play such that a robot can then score it. It is against the intent of the rule to introduce the ball in such a way that the coach imparts energy on the ball which will cause it to score (i.e. bouncing the ball across the wall). It will ultimately be up to referees to determine what constitutes a “gentle” introduction.

Violation of this rule may result in a disqualification per <S1> at the discretion of the head referee, if the action is judged to be overly egregious.

If an alliance does not legally introduce the large ball into play, it counts as being scored in their opponents scoring zone.
• Illegal ways of introducing the ball include: introducing the ball into play early, not “gently” introducing the ball, not introducing the ball into the large ball introduction zone, or not introducing the ball at all.

So simply put, for the Programming Skills Challenge the large ball must be introduced during the last 0:30 seconds of the match. It must be either placed on a robot in contact with the large ball introduction zone, or placed directly in the large ball introduction zone.