Staying in Zones

[Jonanin]

I've been thinking about game strategy for quite a while now, and I am becoming increasingly convinced that it will be useless and possibly even detrimental for robots to move away into different zones than their starting ones. It just doesn't seem like it's worth all the extra trouble. As such, it seems as though being able to effectively pass will be a big one.

All three zones are equally important in my eyes. The one closest to the goal is for scoring easily, the one in the middle is for retrieving and passing forward scored balls that return, and the far zone is for stealing balls and passing forward the opponents missed/stray balls. Since all of these zones require attention, what's the point of leaving one? You are just creating a disadvantage for yourself as you are lettings your opponents robots have free reign over a zone. I think the balls will be relatively equally spread out between zones, despite the fact that they only return to the middle. After all, the goals aren't in the middle are they? Why would the balls be concentrated there of all places?

Is anyone else thinking some of the same things as me?