Attack with a 0 Strength character?

By The Old Man, in Game of Thrones: The Card Game

I think a major error in the rules has been discovered over at BGG. The rules, as written would allow an attacker, who through effects has a zero strength rating, to still initate an attack. If the defender also played a reduced to zero character the attacker would win, but would also get a power bonus for a defender defending with a strength less than 1. This is clearly addressed in AGoT on page 14, but has not been carried over to GoT.

A challenge may not be won by an attacker or a major defender whose total STR is less than 1, or who has no participating characters when the challenge is resolved.

I got this response from FFG:

"Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

However, the rulebook is actually correct as written for this product (HBO Game of Thrones). Having no special exceptions to this particular rule was done deliberately. If you have equal or greater Strength as the attacker, you win the challenge.
In addition, there are only two cards in the entire set that reduce a character's Strength: the plots "Hear Me Roar" and "Spies in Their Midst." As such, the situation of having 0 Strength is significantly more rare than in the AGoT LCG."

We had the follow situtation occur and it wasn't clear in the rules how to resolve this challenege:
The active player declared an intrigue challenge with one participanting character. That character, due the plot card
"Spies in Their Midst" had an effective strength of -1 (base of 1, minus 2 from the plot card).
The 2nd player had no characters to defend the challenge.
So i think it boils down to a few questions:
1) Can a character with a negative strength initiate a challenge?
2) If yes, how do you treat the negative vaule?
3) If no defending character(s) are declared what is the total defending strength 0 or nothing?
Based on the answers to the 1-3 we have thought of the following possibe outcomes, but which is correct?
1) The challenge can't be initiated by charater with < 0 strength.
2) The challenge is lost because the total attack strength (-1) is less than the total defensive strength (0)
3) The challenge is automaticaly won because there are no defenders.

I would go with answer 3 since there were NO defenders. An undefended attack is an undefended attack regardless. However, had there BEEN a defender with a strength of 0, I would consider that having successfully defended from the -1 attack.

At least, that's how I interpret the ruleā€¦

I'm afraid, regardless of the response I got from FFG, this shows that they will have to address this in a FAQ. The answer would be "3", that even a negative strength attacker can initate a challenge. And not only would he win, but he would get the undefended power bonus.

Strength cannot be less than 0. Straight from the FAQ

http://fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/agotlcg/support/10-11/AGoT-LCG-FAQ_3.4_Low_res.pdf

Lasting effects that affect other character
attributes work in the same fashion. For
example, if a character has a base STR of 2,
and a lasting effect (such as Forever Burning)
lowers that character's STR by 1, and another
Lasting Effect (such as Gutter Rat's Cunning
gives the character +2 STR, the net sum
modifier affecting the character is +1 STR (-1
+2 = +1). Thus, the character has a total STR
of 3. If a character's STR is ever lower than 0
after all effects are applied, its STR is rounded
up to 0.