For the virtual tournament, we created a new version of the rule book that was made particularly for the virtual competition. This implied leaving out rules irrelevant for the virtual competition, and changing particular rules that were not possible to be judged for an autonomous referee system.
The league has voiced that they would like to have the virtual rules merged back into the regular rules of the game and to hence create one consistent rule book. While most of the merges can be solved by adding particular cases for the virtual competition or merely adding clarifications, there are some points that would require a change in the laws of the game for the physical competition. We have identified the following critical points:
(1) Team color assignment
In the virtual competition, the team colors are assigned randomly before the competition and are announced in the game schedule. We could apply the same rule for the physical competition instead of allowing teams to agree on a team color.
(2) Game time extended for penalty kicks
In the regular tournament, the game time was extended if penalty kicks occurred during the regular or extended game time. In the virtual rule book, this rule was removed.
(3) Replacing the coin toss by a random decision of the referee
In the physical competition, a coin is tossed and the winner gets to decide whether they want to pick a side to play at for the first half time, or whether they want to have the first kick-off. In the virtual competition, both decisions are taken randomly by the referee. The proposal would be to replace the coin toss with the random decision of the referee for the physical competition as well (both for the regular tournament and penalty shoot-outs).
(4) Dropped Ball
For the virtual competition, a particular definition of a game stuck was added as a definition of when a dropped ball is to be called. This could be added to the physical rule book as well.
(5) Yellow and red cards for teams
In the physical competition, yellow and red cards can only be awarded to robots and to robot handlers. For the virtual competition, we added some cases in which it could be awarded to an entire team. This could be transferred to the physical competition as well.
(6) Penalty kicks
For the virtual competition, we allowed the goalkeeper to position themselves on or behind the goal line. In the physical competition, the goalkeeper has to be on the goal line. However, in the physical competition, the goalkeeper has to face towards the front, while in the virtual competition this constraint was removed. The proposal would be to use the new rules for the virtual competition in the physical competition as well.
(7) Throw-in
The throw-in procedure was modified for the virtual competition. In particular, the robot does not need to face towards the field, it does not need to use two hands, it does not need to lift the ball above the head and it has a maximum of 10 seconds to execute the throw-in once the ball is lifted. The proposal would be to use the new rules for the virtual competition for the physical competition as well.
(8) Game interruption procedure
The procedure for handling game interruptions was clarified in the virtual rule book. In particular, it was decided where exactly the ball shall be placed and what happens to robots that are already penalized but closer to the ball than they are allowed to. The same procedure could be applied to the physical rules.
(9) Penalty Shoot-out
For the virtual rule book, we clarified the consequences of committing certain fouls during a penalty shoot-out. The same procedure could be applied to the physical rule book.
(10) Penalizing players
In the virtual rules, we clarified where penalized robots should be placed. The same rules could be applied to the physical rule book.
In addition to this list, we will provide a draft of the merged rules (apart from the open discussion points mentioned above) soon. If there are any other points you believe to be controversial, please feel free to add them here before or after we publish the merged rule draft.