Robot Game Updates

27 - GARDEN BREAKAGE EXCEPTION
Since the deliverable garden plant is obviously fragile, and breaking it can't offer you an advantage (because only the location of its base counts anyway), this update is an exception to Rule 22 for the garden mission:  If the delivered plant model's base is touching a scoring mark, you score, whether or not either garden model is broken.  This covers only damage caused by the robot - you're still not allowed to take the model apart.

26 - SIMILARITY POINTER POINTS EAST
There's a picture of the field somewhere that makes the pointer look like it's pointing west.  It's not, but anyway, please note the text of the setup instructions telling you the pointer points east, and the text of Rule 33, telling you that if a picture ever seems to disagree with text, follow the text.

25 - SCORING OBJECTS IN VIEW OF THE REFEREE
TEAMS:  You are respectfully asked not to break Rule 17, Bullet 3.
REFEREES:  There is no point loss of any kind associated with a team breaking Rule 17, Bullet 3, even at the end of the match.  Illegal moves with no consequence mentioned are reversed and/or met with a warning.  After an appropriate number of warnings, you may then invent an appropriate consequence.

24 - ROBOT CLAMPING
This is an exception to the Gravity Test (R10B4, R11, R18B6): The robot will be allowed to start while CLAMPING a mission model, or otherwise holding/trapping the mission model with the ability and intent to release it after the start. You're still not allowed to take mission models apart, and you're not allowed to "stick" them to the robot. If you have a starting situation you're not sure is legal based on the wording of this Update, consider it illegal.

23 - MEDS RANDOMIZED ONCE ONLY
The medicine bottles are placed in their random locations as described in the Field Setup once only, during the normal setup time before each match begins. Field resetters will do the bottles when they get to them, no earlier or later than any other models. No randomizing after the match starts.

22 - BALL FALL EXCEPTION
Regarding glitch cause Bullet 2, and Update 21, if a robot causes a non-center ball to fall and this was obviously a pure accident, instead of freezing the rack and awarding the other team the center, the referees will simply go with damage control to the extent possible, and benefit of the doubt where appropriate.

21 - BALL FALL CLARIFICATON
Your robot is not allowed to remove a ball of your own color from the rack.   The WEST side is your color.   If you obviously deliberately remove a ball of your own color from the rack, both teams get credit for whatever balls were left on the rack before this happened, and the other team (only) gets credit for center position (60). 

20 - THE "ROBOT" DID IT!
During legal play, your robot can cause scoring conditions through the use of tools, including separate crafts. Exceptions to this are when the robot has to be somewhere or be touching something.

19 - CARGO ON THE PLATFORM
This update is to clean up an anti-loophole... For the Transitions mission, the robot can score while it has cargo, as long as the cargo is only touching the robot and/or the center platform.

18 - STOVE BLACK
The stove mission does not requre the burners to be flipped "all the way." Just be sure it's quite obvious that an honest flip has occurred, and that the stove is overwhelmingly showing the black side, and it will score.

17 - QUILT ACCESSORIES
If you're sending the quilts out, kept together by ANY part, make sure you are following Rule 10, Bullet 4, and Rule 11.

16 - BORDER HEIGHT REMINDER
Remember that the height of the table border walls at a tournament might be different than the height of the border walls of the tables you're been practicing on. The Field Setup page (and Update 8, below) give allowable border heights of anywhere between 2-1/2" and 3-1/2" (64mm and 90mm). If you rely on the upper third of the boder wall either being there or not being there, this variability may affect you.

15 - BOWLING PIN BREAKAGE
A bowling pin will score if and only if its base is knocked over, period.  Sliding is meaningless, and breakage is okay.

14 - TWO ORANGE QUILTS ON ONE SCORING REGION
Both orange quilt squares touching a single little (orange-owned) scoring triangle will score. Rule 3, Bullet 3 as well as Rule 26, Bullet 2 are the basis for this decision.

13 - EXTRA PINWHEEL CLICKS
If the robot spins the pinwheel in the positive direction past the allowable 1 click/90 degrees per outing, the referee will simply un-spin/take back the extras.  Clicks in the negative direction (whether by robot or referee) are left as is, but do NOT count against your 1-click limit per outing.

12- BOWLING DISTANCE
As long as there's nothing (except usually the mat) touching a ball while it hits a pin, it doesn't matter where or how far away the ball was released. As long as the distance is obviously not zero, there's no particular distance a ball needs to be rolled or thrown before it gets to a pin. Although this is a clean application of Rule 3, Bullet 3, it's being questioned a lot. Just be sure the referee can clearly see that the ball was indeed loose. Don't get so close as to risk an unfavorable call.

11 - SIMILARITY INTERFERENCE
The Similarity mission is not a shared mission for the purposes of Rule 24. This means interference will be called if a robot interacts with the other team's Similarity model.

10 - STRAY BALL EFFECTS
If a loose ball released from the rack by the other team slides or knocks down a bowling pin of yours, that effect is left as-is. This is legal interference by a small but official stretch of Rule 24, Bullet1. If a loose ball released from the rack by the other team moves a medicine bottle, Rule 24 is clear: This is illegal interference, so Rule 23 takes effect.

9 - CARDIO CHART TYPO?
Some people have noticed a 13-point jump between 6-0 and 6-1 on the cardio mission, where it sure looks like it was supposed to be a 3-point jump... And they want to know... Is that a typo? Uhm, er, uh... No! - I MEANT to do that! Yeah, that's it! And it's gonna stay that way.

8 - FIELD BORDER WALL HEIGHT (See Field Setup section for metric dimensions)
People are seeing that the sample table instructions call for "2x3" lumber for the table border walls and thinking they have to make new tables. Not true. Notice that the construction diagram has a ± symbol! The allowable RANGE is 3 inches, plus-or-minus a half inch. So if you live in a country where standard wood size differs from a United States "2x3", that's okay. If you're not ready to rebuild your table or tables, that's okay. If you have or can get wood taller than 2.5 inches for free or a discount, then do it. I would just like to slowly move the community toward the shorter border walls because overall they are cheaper, lighter, take up less storage space, and allow a better view of the field.

7 - TOUCH PENALTY, REF ACTION
The mission text is wrong/confusing about what the referee will do with the cardio model when you get a touch penalty... So here it is: The ref will move the pinwheel one click counterclockwise as viewed from the north.

6 - DUAL LOCK
Two things: First, remember to follow the Field Setup section when applying Dual Lock. Changes to the Dual Lock specs were made after the mat went into production. Also, in the Field Setup page, there's conflicting info about how many places to put Dual Lock under the similarity model... Put 4 - one pair at each corner.

5 - VIDEO MIS-SPEAK REGARDING BONUS D'Oh!
I said in the video that you start out with bonus points on the cardio dial to lose. Not true. Yes, the dial has room to go backwards, but that pre-set isn't charted as a bonus.

4 - BRINGING EXTRA BALLS
You can't bring balls to the field as scoring objects or as bowling balls. However, they are commonly used as caster wheels for the robot and that's okay. This is a custom-boost to Rule 10, Bullet 2.

3 - PINWHEEL CLICKING
The robot has to click the pinwheel directly.  It's not allowed to move the dial directly, or defeat the clicker.  The robot must leave Base (completely), click once, with or without doing other stuff, go back to Base (whenever), come back out (completely), click once more, with or without doing other stuff, and so on.  The dial must move by pinwheel clicks only and only one per outing.

2 - STRAY BALL REMOVAL
Since so many people are asking for it, this Update is providing an exception to Rule 21, Bullet 1: The referee WILL remove any ball from the field (balls fallen from the rack, and/or the used bowling ball), if you ask, or you may do it yourself, but it will be permanent. This does not affect your one allowable re-use of your first yellow ball for bowling.

1 - ROBOT TOUCHING CENTER PLATFORM "ONLY"
This doesn't mean "all the robot has to do is touch the center platform." It means "the only thing the robot can be touching is the center platform."