[mitchellzone]

I'm seeing a bunch of comments about being able to score boulders in auto being an important trait for alliance picks. It's a cool thing, I grant you, but I just don't think it's that valuable--or common enough to be a prerequisite.

First of all, I've seen only a handful of robots in the entire NC region which even attempt to score a boulder in auto, and perhaps 1 or 2 which can do so reliably. Thinking that there will be more than a few in the top 8 seeds per division seems unrealistic, much less any left for the 2nd round.

Second, the large time investment required to build a reliable auto shooter for an extra 5 points just doesn't seem worth it. Instead, you can just drive over the defenses during auto, hold onto the boulder, and shoot it more accurately immediately after tele-op starts. Fewer points, but more reliable, and you've hardly lost any time to go retrieve another boulder. If you shoot during auto and miss (most do), you get nothing and have to spend a bunch of time tracking down a new rock.

So, for my money, take a fast, accurate tele-op shooter over an auto shooter any day.

/mike