[ksafin]

It's definitely a hairy topic.

While overall I agree with you, one problem I could see are super-alliances. Imagine if very experienced teams that do well every year make their "alliance". Every year they'd be very strong and trounce tons of teams.

The way it's set up now diffuses the strength of those few really exceptional teams and "evens the playing field" sometimes (while at other times making for a very unbalanced game).

What we're trying to do for next year is work closely w/ a nearby team and practice together so that when we get to the regional we're confident in eachothers abilities and would be willing to choose eachother should either of us get to elims.

Something we do at debate tournaments (I know, a bit off topic) is called powering. I think powering would be great to use. Essentially, after every team has competed about 2-4 times, you begin to "power" them. You pair the lower ranked teams with other lower ranked teams and pit them against other lower ranked teams. You do likewise with higher ranked teams. That eliminates the disbalance between randomly selected opposing alliances that is often seen at regionals.

Doesn't address most of what you're saying, but it's a step forward.