[Tom Ore]

I'm a bit hesitant to post this, but we had an experience like this at a regional. Another team had struggled with several problems through the first half or so of the qualifying rounds but had them worked out. They were a very low seed at that time and it was clear by then that we would be a high seed. A mentor for this team came to us and said they would be willing to make sure they stayed a low seed if we agreed to pick them as our 3rd alliance partner. We declined to make any agreements regarding alliance partners and reassured this team that they would get picked by someone. I was a bit surprised, however, by this open attempt to make a deal like this with apparently no regard for their future alliance partners.