[Ivan Malik]

I highly suggest the you re-read his post. No where does it say "the top 8 teams" It says "the top teams." Which from 7 years of watching alliance selections and seeing this happen at almost every regional/district, participating in side conversations with other teams myself (not throwing matches or anything like that, but it could have looked like it, due to scheduling, to those not in on the conversation) I can say yeah this happens all the time. On top of that I know for a fact, from their own lips, that many well respected teams do some very VERY shading things during alliance selection that on no plane of thinking follow the tenets of GP or coopertition.

The post also doesn't explicitly refer to this as a "back door deal." That statement is followed by a "or whatever you would like to call them many alliances are prearranged." Hence foul play isn't necessarily what was meant.

As far as the OP: My personal opinion is that if you have to explain yourself to the community, then you are in the wrong. The community is the ultimate police of GP/coopertition. What strategies are acceptable are up to the group at-large. For instance I would say that "scorched earth" alliance selections are not in the spirit of coopertition, but they have been come to be accepted by the community.