In reference to line 1362, does that mean that a striker and goalie can be manually placed for kick-off for BOTH teams, or can the striker only be manually placed for the attacking team?
Line 1376 states that manual placement for a drop ball is possible if “both teams can’t auto-position”. There is no such clause for kick-off. If one team of a kick-off can auto-position, what are the rules/limitations for the other? If one team can auto-position in a drop ball, does that mean that the other is not allowed to manually place a striker at all? What about a goalie?
Where is manual placement allowed for a kick-off and for a dropball? In any position in your own half? Is that different for the attacking and defending teams? It used to be that manual placement was only on the goal line, except for the attacking striker (positioned behind ball) or dropball striker (positioned outside circle). Where have these restrictions for manual placement gone? We want to make auto-positioning more desirable than last year, not less.
The goal keeper can be placed for both teams, the striker only for the team that has kick-off. Will be clarified.
As I remember the discussion and understand the voting by the team leaders, the goal keeper may always be manually positioned for regular start and kick-off. The striker can be manually positioned for kick-off if and only if the respective team has kick-off and for the drop-ball only if the other team requests manual positioning as well. Otherwise the striker has to be positioned outside the touch as the other robots.
For kick-off in the center circle and for drop-ball outside of the center circle within your own half. Should be clarified. Does anyone know if that has been in the last rule book or if that was just common sense?
M1/2. It would be straight forward to place the goalie on the goal line, which I remember to having been the intention. However, for that we need to remove the ‘outside of the goal’ 1373.
Line 1376 reads “Similar to a kick-off situations one striker robot for each team may be placed manually for a drop ball, if both teams can not position themselves automatically.”, which I interpret as both teams may position a robot manually. Position for kick-off is ruled by the FIFA-part. I don’t think we need to specify the allowed position for dropped ball (except for outside of center circle). (Furthermore, I’m very much in favor of using FIFA rules for dropped ball, but maybe we have toi wait a little while to get there.)
BTW: FIFA uses ‘dropped ball’ whilst we use ‘drop ball’. We should change it.
Maike: Agreed. For kick-off a goal keeper per team and one striker for the kick-off team can be manually placed. It may seem silly, but it really should be stated somewhere that the goalie can only be manually placed inside the team’s own goal area. We couldn’t find a rule that prevents the ‘goalie’ from being manually positioned for example just outside the centre circle.
Maike: Agreed. For drop ball a goal keeper per team can be manually placed, in addition to either one striker per team as well (outside the centre circle), or no striker for either team manually placed, if one of the teams uses auto-positioning.
Maike: Agreed. For kick-off takers (defenders are not allowed to be manually positioned) anywhere in the own half including in the centre circle, for drop ball anywhere in the own half but outside the centre circle. In the old rules for kick-off: 8.2.4. Robots being able to autonomously reposition themselves can take any position on the field that is consistent with above requirements. Robots not able to autonomously reposition themselves, e.g. robots being carried or joysticked around by human team members, have to start from a position not closer to the field halfway line than the outer line of the goal area. If all robots of the team executing the kick-off cannot autonomously reposition themselves, then one robot may be placed into the center circle.
Old rules for dropped ball: 8.3.2. The game is continued at the center mark. A goal can be scored directly from a dropped ball. The procedure for dropped ball is the same as for kick-off, except that the robots of both teams must be outside the center circle. The ball is in play immediately after the referee gives the signal.
What was not covered well by 8.3.2 is that for dropped balls both teams can manually place right outside the centre circle, and weren’t limited to start in the goal area like defenders of a kick-off.
All of these points should be made clear/unambiguous in the rules to avoid potential misunderstandings, as suggested by Maike already.