Something one of my team members thought of: Keep the 1-8, 8-1 rule (that keeps it interesting), but make it so that alliance captains can't pick each other.

1 can't pick 2, etc.

That means matches will be the first seed vs. the 8th seed, instead of the 1st and 2nd seed against the 8th seed, most likely going on to win the regional. It would then require teams to build the best alliance of not-top-8-robots.

Thoughts on this method?

EDIT: Nevermind, I didn't see the post above.