Are active intakes necessary to be competitive in Recycle Rush?

[RunawayEngineer]

I think a lot of people are defining "competitive" as being among the top teams.
I think that being "competitive" means being on a level that you can contribute to a Playoff Alliance significantly - a la Minimum Competitive Concept.
Note that a particular design can be inferior, but the robot as a whole can still be competitive.
So I don't think that this poll will be productive with different definitions floating around.

[Jared Russell]

I can think of many ways that a robot without an active intake could be a valuable contributor to an Einstein alliance.