Hello–I am a team dad and coach, and my son’s team is coming to Worlds. There is a situation that has been addressed before (“rule clarification”) by Karthik in the unofficial forum, but I would like a final “official” ruling from the “official” forum.
The issue is knocking a large bucky ball off of a ring and out of the field. This is easy to do, and my team has gone to considerable lengths to avoid doing it, as we thought the rule was that the ball would be placed back on the ring, which is the exact spot from whence it left the field. Placing it back on the ring would be a de-facto time “penalty,” or something to avoid (as I said, we have carefully practiced avoiding this). Karthik has stated that the ball will NOT be placed back on the ring–this is a de-facto “reward” because no time is spent re-knocking the ball off the ring.
If this is truly the official ruling, then our team’s strategy will change to either not caring or perhaps even deliberately knocking it off the ring and out of the field on our first move. As I said, this is easier than knocking it off the ring so that it stays in the field of play.
Karthik’s previous ruling seems counter-intuitive to the spirit of the game, which one would believe should not reward knocking elements outside the field. But if that is the official ruling, and if we can rely on it being judged this way during the upcoming Worlds competition in Anaheim, we will adjust our strategy accordingly.
Thanks!