[Wetzel]

Originally Posted by EricH

No. He wouldn't. See below.

The FIRST thing to happen would be an immediate call to HQ, or whoever representing HQ is available, for clarification. Bill Miller, any GDC members onsite, whoever the ref and regional director need to get ahold of. This is because it's a situation that is not in the rules. (The fourth thing to happen would be that it would be in the rules in following years.)

The second thing to happen would be the announcement of the GDC ruling.

The third thing to happen would be either the picking team picking again, which is more likely, or a ton of confusion as the entire picking would need to be redone. Let's face it, if #1 picks #6 as the final pick, the #6 alliance has to have another team, or quite possibly the #7 and #8 have to move up, leaving the #9 team to move up and now they have to get picks...

And the final thing to happen is memory. Your team, if they insisted on challenging this during alliance selection, would be remembered for years as "that team that caused the big mess in the Magnolia Regional alliance selection" if it was successfully challenged. (And if it was unsuccessful? Everyone knows where the rule explicitly disallowing picking alliance captains who have already picked comes from for years to come.)


Of course, this is an easy tactic to defeat: All the lower-seeded captain has to do is say "We decline. As you can see, we already have an alliance." and that's that. That's been the de facto reason for years when someone who's been picked is picked again; it just hasn't been stated as such.

I doubt that call even gets made. This is a what if question that doesn't have legs, and only gets bothersome after the third no gets talked around. Once a team has declined or is in an alliance, they are not available to be picked.

Wetzel