Predictions on how the games are gonna go!

[Wayne TenBrink]

I agree that the dumpers will dominate early, and shooters importance will grow as the season wears on. I am not so sure that they will ever become the dominant force.

I predict that 80% or more of the robot-scored rocks will be from within 2 feet - including shooters.

Most of these discussions ignore the role of the payload specialists. They will do the vast majority of the scoring during autonomous. They will score a lot during teleoperation. They also control the ball supply on the floor. As the season goes on, they will wise up and not be so generous to us ball collectors. This could change the whole flavor of the game and create an opportunity for dominant drive systems & coordinated alliance partners to simply push a target (with an unwitting robot attached, of course) over to the nearest payload specialist.

A lack of balls on the floor would also increase the relative value of robots that are easily reloaded by the payload specialist.

I predict that strategies will develop that nobody predicted before the competitions began. How's that for a bold prediction?