LHC Collimation: Too Bad or Too Good?

The LHC beam operation at 3.5 TeV has seen a rapid and quite worry-free increase of beam intensity. The energy stored in the proton beams quickly reached more than 10 times the values achieved in other colliders and was not perturbed by quenches of super-conducting magnets from stored beam. Losses were reliably and efficiently intercepted by the phase 1 of the LHC collimation system. The success of the collimation system has triggered the questions whether collimation performance is already sufficient and whether the foreseen completion and upgrade of the system is justified. These questions are addressed in view of the first beam experience.