[kamocat]

It depends whether your goal is to acquire the gamepiece, or to keep another 'bot away from them.
However, I would still argue that if you can keep track of multiple gamepieces around you at the same time, then you immediately know where to go when one is taken, and you don't waste time looking for another. I think gamepiece detection should be passive most of the time.
Also, by not using the camera for finding gamepieces, then the robot could focus on the target to fire, but still be aware of what's happening around it.

EDIT: I replaced all instances of "ball" with "gamepiece". Isn't there PHP for this?