To tell the truth, I wasn't planning to watch the video until this weekend. Why? Because it's only some highlights of the missions, and doesn't have the details of the game that teams will need to know. Robot Bill noted the reference to that in the rules.
The FLL Robot Game is like other games--there are things that your team is allowed to do, that may have consequences that your team doesn't like. For example, when playing soccer (in real life!), a team *can* kick the ball out of bounds, but they may not *want* to kick the ball out of bounds, because then the other team gets to control the ball.
In this year's Robot Game, your robot *can* bring the box to Base. That is allowed; there is no rule against it. Your team probably doesn't *want* to bring the box to Base, because then they won't get any points for the Thinking Outside the Box mission.
So let's take a look at the details of the team's question.
- In the Missions document, the mission description talks about two objects-- the "box model" and the "idea model".
- The Field Setup document talks about the "box" and the "slab". This could be confusing, but we use the picture in the mission description to recognize that the "idea model" is the "slab" that has the "light bulb" image on it.
- The mission text describes the "box model" and the "idea model" as two separate, independent objects, even though the Field Setup has one of them start inside the other.
- The mission text has the constraint that the "box model" must never be in Base, in order to get points for the mission.
Does this constraint also mean that the "ideal model" has to stay out of Base to earn points for the mission?
- Rule 2: There are no hidden requirements or restrictions. If you’ve read everything, then you know everything.
- Rule 2: Robot game text means exactly and only what it says, so take it literally whenever possible.
- So, since the mission only says "box model", then it only means "box model" and the constraint doesn't apply to the "idea model".
The team asked if they could bring the "idea model" to Base. Yes, that is allowed by the Rules. Are there any consequences that they don't like? Not for the Thinking Outside the Box mission. If the "idea model" is in Base during the match, and the "box model" is never in Base during the match, then the team can earn the points for that mission.
Everyone will see in our future discussions that we'll look at what happens to individual objects separately (especially see Rule 27, "In"), and that is the distinction that we are making here.
Steve Scherr
VA-DC FLL Referee Advisor