Thanks guys.
Another extraordinary contest with perhaps the most varied set of solutions seen in a long time.
Take your pick from pulley, rubber, going through, elastic, flipper, and a POC1/POC3 cantilever.
Alex just won the battle of the elastic launchers by $3, scoring 1772 with a suitably economical breaking catcher.
Four of you opted for elastic, and were separated by no more than $22, but you will be surprised at how very different they all are.
But the winner, scoring 1802, is Rob. Congratulations!
It's been so long, we've all forgotten just how much power those flippers can generate.
For once, I did have a solution "strategy" in mind for this challenge - a rotating cantilever.
My first attempt to build it (POC1) failed to work as intended, but I did go back and get it working in POC3 - I really like it, too.
It manages about 330 degrees of rotation, and would probably make 360 or more, if the sling did not use the counterweight as an "ejection" system.
It just beat the elastic solutions, too, at 1774.
PS: POC2 has the "wrong" price for rubber, hence a $50 higher finish value than what it should score.