[DonRotolo]

Having been on the other end of being picked, I too questioned whether there was a bias against "young" teams.

Now that we have veteran experience, I can safely state that there is no such bias.

Experienced teams pick their alliance partners based on their scouting data, and how well a given robot will perform within that team's strategy for winning. The picking team wants to maximize their chances of winning, so they pick the "best" team available. The issue is with the definition of "Best".

For 1676 at Rutgers, "Best" meant a nimble defensive bot with smart drivers that knew how to avoid fouls. They also needed to be able to balance well, again driver skill. Our pick of 1370 had these qualities. Check their rank to see if they were in the top 24 or not...

So if a rookie team fit the criteria, it would be picked, If not, it wouldn't. Simple as that.

(By the way: Having your team lobby us to get picked won't work. We use numbers, not friendships.)