[Chris is me]

I always thought one of the dumbest things you could do in alliance selection is send down anyone but your head scout to make the picks. (With an exception for teams who "whiteboard" picks from the stands, then you can send whomever you want.) The person picking needs to have knowledge of all of the teams being selected.

No matter what you do, ANY list this year NEEDS to have robot orientation on it. In my opinion, if you're not trying for the triple balance, you're not trying for the World Championship. Have fun trying to score 7 balls in the extra ~15 seconds you have over a good triple alliance, or rolling the dice with legally hazy defensive strategies that take a robot away from an offensive contribution anyway.

Some long bots can hang off the end. Some long bots will say they can hang off the end but in practice be really, really bad at it, or won't be able to get enough of themselves on the bridge by the time it starts moving. Knowing the difference is part of good scouting and there is certainly a trust factor in there.

Every pick should have the triple balance in mind. In the first round you should have enough of an idea who you might get to pick that you can talk to them in advance and see what they need to make a triple work. In my mind, that is the true advantage of a top seed in the era of the serpentine.