# Separate melee and 1v1 racks: the mechanism is built, the payoff is NOT there

The user's plan: *"separate racks for melee and 1v1, so the bot switches from those based on the
situation, and we can put the guns we want in one or both racks."*

**The mechanism is built and committed** (`TR_RACK_<GUN>=both|1v1|melee|off`, mode from server truth
`getEnemyCount() == 1`). **The measured verdict is: do not populate it differently. Keep Pattern for
both modes.** No split has a gun-level payoff.

## 1v1 — ModularBot vs the real DrussGT (6 arms × 5 runs × 7 rounds)

| arm | real % | **damage/run** | round wins |
|---|---:|---:|---:|
| **Pattern** | **10.80** | **292** | **11/35** |
| KNN | 5.58 | 128 | 1/35 |
| Linear | 2.99 | 59 | 0/35 |
| Circular | 2.89 | 60 | 0/35 |
| WallBounce | 2.72 | 57 | 0/35 |
| GuessFactor | 2.14 | 38 | 0/35 |

Every arm differs from Pattern at **p = 0.0079** (the 5v5 permutation floor). Per-gun damage span:
**7.7×**.

## Melee — +DrussGT, RandomMover, WaveSurfer, OscillatorBot (enemyCount 4)

| arm | real % | **damage/run** | round wins |
|---|---:|---:|---:|
| WallBounce | 25.79 | 643 | 7/25 |
| Linear | 24.88 | 624 | 7/25 |
| GuessFactor | 24.48 | 613 | 4/25 |
| **Pattern** | 24.39 | **599** | 5/25 |
| Circular | 25.88 | 596 | 5/25 |
| KNN | 23.87 | 539 | 3/25 |

**No arm beats Pattern with significance** (p = 0.42–0.96, fully overlapping per-run ranges).
WallBounce's nominal +7.3% damage is p=0.42 — not a result. Per-gun damage span: **1.19×**.

## The finding

**In 1v1 the gun matters enormously (7.7× spread); in melee it barely matters (1.19×).** Melee is won
by movement, survival and placement, not by which gun you carry — every candidate lands in the same
~24–26% band. So a separate melee rack has no gun-level payoff, and `DefaultRackMembership` stays
Pattern-only.

Caveats, stated honestly:
- The melee comparison is **underpowered** at 5 runs: detecting the observed ~44 damage WallBounce–Pattern
  gap would need ~2.5–3× the runs. **"No significant difference" is not "no difference."** If this is
  ever revisited, the only candidate worth re-testing is WallBounce in melee
  (`TR_RACK_PATTERN=1v1 TR_RACK_WALLBOUNCE=melee`, all else `off`) — but do not ship it on this evidence.
- **Shim limitation found:** `run_bridge_battle.sh` captures with `--subject DrussGT`, and the shim
  DROPS every tick once the subject dies — losing 5–20% of ModularBot's shots in melee. The melee
  campaign was re-run with `--subject ModularBot` so ModularBot's own events are complete (fires match
  `gun_stats` realShots exactly). Any future melee evidence through this shim must use
  `--subject ModularBot`, or it will silently under-count.