[elemental]

I can understand where the team that told you they were broken were coming from. Last year, I told a rookie team not to pick my team for eliminations. My team's robot was a poor performer and the rookie's robot never scored a point despite the fact that they were seeded 4th. We would not have been a good choice for them and I suggested other teams they could choose who were more capable.

Eliminations came and, to my team's surprise, we were chosen by the 7th seed and then ended up winning the quarterfinals against the same rookie team I talked to previously.

In the end, I did feel rather bad about the situation. However, I also knew that we would not have helped if we were picked by the rookies due to our own scoring issues.

Perhaps the team that told you their robot was broken did so because they thought they would cause more problems for your alliance than help it.