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I made an observation at the Los Angeles regional this past weekend that, despite the fact that 18 out of 66 teams (>27%) were rookies, there was not a single rookie team selected for elimination rounds. In total, only 1 rookie team (who was a picker) out of 24 participated in elimination rounds at all, despite my observation of several rookies who seemed to have robots well qualified for the job.

I'm curious if a member of a veteran team can comment on why this was the case:
Do veteran teams bias their scouting towards veterans due to a concern over lack of driver experience or teamwork in eliminations?
Is there a sense of favoritism between teams that know each other more so than rookies?
Would gracious professionalism have any impact on "inviting" a skilled rookie to join their alliance -- all other considerations being equal?

Or, was this simply a case that the rookie field this year simply did not have robots that met the compatibility and skill level the veteran pickers were looking for?