I received a great question, and I thought it would be worthwhile to share my response with the list:

Thanks Steve – quick question – tensioning of the zip line has a large impact on where the plane lands – at the tournament, who tensions the line? Can the team modify the tension, or ask to have it modified? And what happens if the sticky stuff holding the zip line endpoints comes loose during a match?

First, let's talk about setting up and checking the table setup:

1) Teams are encouraged to inspect the game field at a tournament, and to ask for the referee to check that the field is properly set up and ready.

2) Teams may not touch or adjust mission models outside of Base at the tournament. [This is, by far, the hardest thing to get used to for teams--they will have been practicing for 2+ months to do all of those adjustments themselves.]

3) The Referee, or the Referee's Assistant, will check the field for proper setup, both before the team arrives at the table, and when the team requests it before the match.

Teams are **strongly encouraged** to inspect the field when they get to the table. There are dozens of movable pieces this year in addition to the dual-locked models that need to be reset, and I am sure that there will be times when something will be overlooked in the pre-match setup.

[Also note, teams should generally not ask for a detailed physical examination of 100% of the setup every time they come to the table--focus on the most important items. The pre-match setup time is limited, and the Head Referee is may have to start the match anyway if a team is taking an excessive amount of time to get ready.]

Relevant rules:

Rule 19 - QUALITY CONTROL - During your pre-match setup time only, you may ask the ref to double-check that a particular setup is correct/within spec, but you may not request any custom setup, in or out of the specified setup range.

Rule 20 - SENDING/HANDLING OBJECTS OUTSIDE BASE
Your hands may not directly or indirectly strategically change the shape, position, motion, quantity, or other status of things outside Base except when storing things, or by properly starting the robot.

Rule 6 - MATCH
You get to the competition table and have at least one minute to prepare your equipment.

[This is your pre-match setup and calibration time.]

Second, topic--what if the zip line departure or arrival points come detached during the match?

We start with Rule 34--MODEL DAMAGE

There are lots of bullets in this rule, but here is the gist:

- Model damage can be due to incorrect setup, or dual-lock failure, or caused by robot action

- Model damage is not repaired/reset during the match

- If the robot causes model damage while creating a scoring condition, then the points for the mission don't count

- If the robot causes model damage, but this doesn't create a scoring condition, the the points for the mission can count [usually when they are still visible at the end of the match]

- The robot can spoil its opportunity to score points by damaging a model, or messing with stuff that was already in a scoring position

- Model damage that is not caused by the team or robot (caused by poor setup or lack of field maintenance) is scored with benefit of the doubt.

Rule 40 - BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT
- You get the benefit of the doubt when:
— incorrect/poor model setup or maintenance is the probable cause.
- Speak up! If you (kids, not coach) disagree with the ref and can respectfully raise sufficient doubt in his/her mind during your post-match chat, you are given the points in question.

For the Cargo Plane mission, note that there are already several game updates that apply: [see http://www.firstlegoleague.org/challenge/robotgameupdates]

Update 2--Plane Pulley

Update 3--Runway Conflict

Update 7--Departure Tower Missing Info

Update 13--Plane in the Way

Update 14--Arrival End Flip

So, the answer to the question--"What if the dual lock for the Cargo Plane mission fails?" is--it depends.

If the failure is clearly not due to team/robot action, and the referee can reasonably see that the robot might have tried to trigger the plane after the damage, then the team should get points for the mission. There has to be "sufficient doubt" to enable the referee to make that judgment call though. If the robot just sits in base for the whole match, then it clearly would not be able to earn points for that mission after a model failure.

Benefit of the Doubt is pretty powerful stuff. Some of the goals of FLL are to enable kids to think about things, ask questions, and make logical deductions. Having team members engage the referee with a courteous, logical discussion is a great outcome and you should encourage all team members to ask questions when they don't understand or disagree with a referee's ruling.

By the way, you probably noticed that Update 2 tells us that small variations in the tension of the zip line should not have an effect on match scoring. Those variations could have an effect on the WOW! factor of the mission, of course, so we'll try to have consistent tension during all Virginia and DC tournaments.

Steve Scherr

VA/DC FLL Referee Advisor