Reposting since I haven’t heard a response from the official Q&A forum.
At a recent league event, if a hexball was knocked out of the fence, but fell off the playing field, the referees would add the ball onto the fence itself, not onto the field. Is that the correct process? i.e. if when knocking down a ball from the fence, the ball falls outside of the field, the ball is placed back onto the fence - therefore it is not counted as a scoring ball.
This is a good question. I would like a ruling as well for my tournament this Saturday.
<G7> Hexballs that leave the playing field will be promptly returned to the playing field at the location nearest the point at which they exited. If the nearest point to which it exited is in a Goal it will be returned to a spot that is adjacent to and not in the Goal.
The playing field is both the fence and the scoring zone, so it depends on which is the “location nearest the point at which they exited.” I have asked my refs to not put it back on the fence, but see which direction the ball was falling as it fell and place it in that scoring zone. It can be difficult as both robots are going after these at the same time and both do get knocked off at the same time.
Unofficially, from all the game play I have seen the ball has always left from either blue or orange although I suppose it is possible it could leave from neither (rarely.)
That being said, this is the call of the ref and unless it is officially answered elsewhere it is up to them.
From my understanding of the rules and the results of recent tournaments…
If the hexball fell off the fence and out of the field, the ball would be returned to the “field” at the nearest point it exited (not the fence). If the orange ball fell out on the blue side of the fence, the ball should be returned to the field on the blue side -no point. If the orange hexball was knocked out on the orange side of the fence, it should be placed on the orange side of the field- 1 point.
I hope this helps.