[Austin2046]

floor loading was important in 2007 because you could easily throw tubes to the central scoring structure (or right next to it) so your robot could just pick them up and put them on.

the main difference i see is that in 07 each alliance had their own game pieces (blue tubes or red tubes) this year the game pieces are common. the tubes thrown out by the red alliance human players can be used by the blue alliance to score and vice versa. so floor loading is important if you want to steal the opposing alliance's game pieces as well as the obvious distance advantage of picking up a thrown tube vs a slot tube.

i can see an alliance at first trying to throw tubes 1/2 the field to have their robots retrieve them from a shorter distance. yet at the same time i can see the other alliance having their human players hold onto their tubes or slot feed them while the robots try to steal the thrown tubes.