what's the secret to making a good robot in robocode

There is a lot more to DrussGT than simply a bunch of buffers.

I think multiple buffers are the weakest part of DrussGT. Replacing the bins with k-NN search in movement would make it even stronger.

State of the art go-to surfing, flattener, super strong dynamic clustering gun, anti-surfer gun, genetic tuning, precise MEA, gun heat waves, super survivalist energy management...

Agreed, there's a lot more to Skilgannon's success than a willingess to "go big" and squeeze harder. It's tough to go bigger or squeeze harder without your system breaking down. But we humans are narrative-oriented and Skilgannon's a humble guy, so he comes up with a humble narrative. ;)