I suggest looking at videos of our matches on Newton to see how not to say "no." We worked with teams that were weaker as soon as we got to St. Louis (and you can see how their match records improved over regionals.) They became very successful alliance partner to whom we are indebted.
On the other hand, we had at least one "top" team not play cooperatively, and they dropped significantly in our draft list as a result. Maybe we should have told them "no"...
