Hi all, Just a few items that may be helpful for teams and coaches that we identified after our event on Friday.
How did you deal with the unstiched balls?
I swapped out the broken ones with those from the practice field. We restitched the broken ones and will use them for practice now.
Will stiched balls be allowed for competition matches, or will they be illegal because the are modified?
Because all fixes may not be equal the answer is no.
This is super disappointing to me. I competed in pitching in, and was aware of the annoyance of deformed or deteriorating balls. I know it could be tough to machine good quality plush balls for a reasonable price.
I want to hear from the GDC on this. 2 of our 6 balls at camp broke stitches. There should be an easy way to send them in to get them “legally” repaired or replaced. It is THEIR responsibility to provide quality game materials that will last.
Being clear, the balls take a pounding at events and practice. I’m not surprised that they come unstitched when the first thing my boys do is throw them at each other.
It is in the game manual that they can be repaired but I swapped them out as I didn’t want to repair them during the event. I saw it as something for the community to be aware of, not something to stress or complain about.
Hey Josh,
Thanks as a coach I just wanted to know what to do in the same situation. Much appreciated.
How do you deal with unstiched balls? And was it stressfull in anyway for the judges?
We swapped out the balls with the ones from the practice field. I restitched them after the event.
Judging was fine, no dramas. One thing I did different this year is I had innovate award sheets to hand to all teams so we could hand out the award. We had a few teams that didn’t submit notebooks which makes excellence and design easier to award.
Hi, RM, welcome to the forum. Since you are new here, referees run the matches, judges give awards away (Build, Design, etc.) So the answer to your question is the judges didn’t really care about the balls.
As shown here,
They just stitched the balls back up. I assume they had backups in case they needed to replace one during the day
Even with the Game Manual clarifications, they’re going to have to allow repairs anyway because on VEX Robotics, the balls are sold out. Probably why we haven’t received welcome kits for 4 of our teams since the welcome kit comes with one. I’ve used a curved tapestry needle and regular thread so far, but I’m going to look for some heavier duty thread for future fixes.
Repairing the balls is allowed, I’m not sure what you mean, unless I missed something in a manual update.
There was a Q and A saying that you could not mark the balls to help with recording passes, but nothing about repairs, as far as I know
What I meant is that since the balls are not in stock on VEX Robotics to replace any that come apart, repair would need to be an allowed alternative or there are not going to be enough in some cases. Q & A did clarify that repairs are OK, just not marking. 
This topic was automatically closed after 365 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
