[s_forbes]

I agree with the the thought that, all other things the same, a shooter will be faster than an arm bot. There is that small smidgen of time that they gain by not having to stop at the overpass.

This small advantage may not seem like much, but it opens up a unique strategy that I haven't seen anyone go for yet (though I'm still holding out for 1114!). Basically, if you launch the ball properly (as in lots of backspin) you can get it to slow enough when it bounces to be easy to retrieve again. If it's done properly, you could even get the ball to bounce back into your robot. This completely bypasses any time that would be taken to retrieve the ball again, which seems like it will be a major issue!

I was hoping more teams would realize this strategy and go for a bounce catch, but then again we haven't seen everyone's robot yet.