[Pault]

Swerve is good because it is one of the few things that you can completely build and test during the offseason, and then it almost always will make you more competitive come the next season (assuming your team has the resources to complete it and then easily replicate it during the build season, which many teans don't). No, it is never necessary, but it often gives a huge advantage. Look at 16 in 2012; they were one of the few IRI caliber "feeder bots" because of their swerve. Or 2000, when the second iteration of the original swerve by 47 allowed them to remove balls from the opponent's trough, slide sideways to their own, and score the balls. Or any game where you need to pick up a game piece, and swerve allows you to better manuever the field and pick them up. I would not consider it waste of time, so long as you have the resources to do it and make sure to get plenty of driver practice.