**The Issue With Dumpers** *By Evan Kiess*
Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, today I would like to explain the logical fallacies with using a dumper. The most common reasoning for dumpers is
> "Dumpers are faster because they don't have to aim"
Well, I would like for you to think about this, the time that it takes you to run all the way down to the bottom bin just to score 5 points **AT MAX** is not nearly as worth it as to shoot 5 balls, worth 2 points each. Even if you miss 2/5 balls you still get 1 more point **AND** you didn't waste time running between loading bay and power port. The abilities of Limelights and other vision processing allow easy vision tracking and consistent 3-Point Shots. Think about this, a well calibrated robot with a good shooter will hit *around* 1-2/5 Balls in the 3-point hole, given that its perfectly lined up. With this in mind, the other 3-4 balls are stilling giving you 2 points each. Not only does it give you more points per trip, but its also purely faster.
> "The Cycle Times Are Faster"
If you look in the rules, you can see that each team can hold at max 15 balls, there are a total of 48 balls in play, between the field, the loading bays, and enemy HP´s. If you think about this, this means that after 15 shots are made by the Dumpers, there can be as low as 33 balls on the field. This doesn´t take into account the balls the enemy robots and allied HP´s have control over, slimming this number down possibly down to 18. Given this fact, it only makes sense to not only optimize cycle times, but also how many points you get per ball.
> **Congestion**
Likely the biggest factor to think of when making a dumping bot. In order to get maximum efficiency, robots must be constantly moving. Many dumping bots are designed to move under the trenches. This creates a problem when every bot on a team is designed to go under the trenches, causing mass chaos and congestion. Any dump bots trying to go through the middle would be drastically slowed down by the several metal bars stopping their progress in the middle. This problem is exacerbated in the later game when robots need to get to and from the wheel of fortune. These trenches are designed to fit one tightly squeezed robot through the trench, rendering any team with more than one dumper bot useless. Imagine, you start the match and your alliance is paired with two dumping bots, you have an insane 18 point auto, your robot runs back to get more balls. You use every ball from the field and start heading back to the Loading bay. Boom, out of no where, you look around and all you can see is two dumping bots trying to squeeze their way through the trenches to get more balls to score relatively low amounts of points. You think to yourself, "Our robot isn't designed to go over the metal bars". You only have one choice, you floor it over the rendeavouz point with all your might, picking up balls along the way, when all of a sudden your robot is stuck in between the bars and you spend 30 seconds trying to get out, losing the game for your alliance. *This, my friends, is why dumper bots aren't OP*. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.