[SamMullen]

In the competition this year, a lot of the second pick robots come down to teams that A have a good hybrid program or B have good triple balancing capabilities (a wide base, a small robot base, a balance assistance mechanism). These capabilities are incredibly important, but for the triple balance capabilities at least, may not be revealed during the qualifying matches. If you think that your robot could easily be part of a triple balance, don't just tell someone that, show them. Get out onto the field on Thursday during practice matches and attempt to triple balance. On Friday, if you still aren't being courted, get together with a high ranked team you want to be with, go to the practice field and triple balance with them.

956 in Portland was seeded 40th, had an OPR of 1.8, which gave them the OPR rank of 48th. By most scouting metrics, they were not a great team. But because of good scouting- scouting beyond just how many points they scored on the field- they were identified and picked. They won the regional.

TL;DR-
If you can convince high ranked teams that they can easily triple balance with you, you will most likely be selected for eliminations.