[EricH]

Originally Posted by I LOVE ROBOTS!

I agree. At the start of the season, decide what the strategy of the winning alliances will be, and build your robot to execute that strategy.

Exactly--the alliance strategy. The other trick is to figure out one twist that a lot of teams will have trouble doing, or doing well, but will be incredibly valuable to an alliance. That way, even if you aren't the first seed, you'll be picked quickly. 469 in 2010 is a prime example--they could be beaten, yes, but if they weren't picking first, they were picked first. You could also look at the half-dozen bar-blockers in 2004--very few missed eliminations entirely at events they were at.

That way, you're a really good alliance partner.