[Jeff K.]

Hurdling doesn't seem to be the hard part. From scrimmage videos so far, picking up seems to be the worst, just because of the traffic jams and balls everywhere. A robot that can quickly get a hold of the ball and into its possession will waste less time there, and be able to get to hurdling faster. For hurdling, the teams that I think will do well are the ones that get the ball just over the overpass. The ones that launch and shoot it way over will waste time having to chase after that ball or the other ball.

I agree that cycle time will be important. Hurdling fast, but pick up slowly doesn't have an advantage to a robot that can pick up quickly, but just hurdle at a medium rate.

No one still really doesn't know what a true winning strategy is because we don't have many repeated 3v3 matches to see what works best. Saying that one robot on an alliance will win is probably just your own preference for a winning design. Also who knows, it may be like last year where ramps became biggest part. It may turn out that no one can reliably pick up and hurdle balls with 5 other robots trying to get around the field.