[Basel A]

Very interesting thread!

A few thoughts:
1. 3 Hanger-bot alliances are already having trouble. it will probably be easiest to have 2 Hanger-bots and one assister (likely a feeder+minibot). That said, a team that can master the collusion of three hanger-bots, even if one is only scoring on lower pegs, may take the Championship by filling the rack top to bottom.
2. What I like about a minibot specialist in St. Louis is that they'll be low ranked, and trained feeders or defenders. That's really underrated. Teams with the "wrong strategy," like us last year with the suspensions, usually make excellent third-round picks. There are feeder-bots, like team 1 this year, who suck in qualifications, but given a good scorer in the zone, they excel. This was shown at Kettering, where they were champs, and they're utlising the same strategy to the same effect this weekend at Detroit.
3. Throwing vs. Loading. I think the best alliances will have smart feeders. This means they only throw the tubes their alliances need, and only throw them to their alliances. Traditionally, even in 2009, human players didn't need to be good, they just needed to be smart, and I believe that will again be key. Also, as alliances seek to fill the rack, which will happen more than once in STL as well as the MSC, they will understand the need to be more careful with tubes they're wary to lose.