The Return of the Jedi Penguins team has a couple of questions.

First, to answer their concern about the Robot coming back to them at the end of a run, their question is whether having the Robot stop when it touches the West wall in the Home area is a problem. Here's where they can find information about that:

10. PRECISION TOKEN – These are six red discs on the Field, already worth points when the Match starts. Interrupting the Robot before it gets Completely Into Home causes the Referee to take them away.
27. INTERRUPTION PROCEDURE – If you Interrupt the Robot, stop it instantly, then calmly pick it up for the n
ext Launch.

Where was the Robot Interrupted?
➔ Completely in Home: No problem.
➔ Not Completely in Home: Lose a Precision Token.

28/RG05. INTERRUPTION WITH CARGO – If the Robot has Cargo when Interrupted,

..... Where was the Cargo at Interruption?
➔ Completely in Home: Keep it

➔ Not Completely in Home: If it didn't come with the Robot at the last Launch, the Referee takes it out of play

What is the bottom line? There is no significant benefit to the team from grabbing the Robot when it returns to the Launch Area.

Return of the Jedi Penguins are also curious about what they can do with the Building Units.

From Rule 21, we know that if you launch the Robot with Building Units, then everything has to fit into the Launch Area, and fit inside a 12 inch ceiling.
From Rule 35, we know that only the end-of-Match condition of the Field is evaluated for scoring
So, as long as a collection of Building Units is okay when it Launches, and forms a scoring Stack when the Match is over, the team has a lot of flexibility in how they approach the Mission.

This same pattern holds true for all the Missions. As long as the Robot and its Cargo Launch according to the Rules, and things end up in scoring position when the end-of-Match signal goes off, then it's up to the team how they get to their planned end state.

Steve Scherr

Virginia-DC FLL Referee Advisor

On Tue, Sep 17, 2019 at 9:02 PM Kathleen Olowin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

My team has a question about the units used in the Mission 12's design
and build. Can the units be stacked together prior to transport from
base, or do they need to be individually stacked once in the circles?

Also, we have a question regarding the "home" area at the end of the
launch grid. If a robot goes past the launch area into the home space
when returning to base, does the team get a penalty? We understand that
no part of the robot can be in this home area when launching a mission,
but since the wall is farther away from the edge of the mat than in
previous years when they have used a touch sensor to stop the robot in
the base, they are concerned what happens if the robot should leave the
launch area upon return.

Thanks,

Kathleen

Coach, The Return of the Jedi Penguins