[New lightnining]

What you see at some off season events, including Cow Town Throw Down in Kansas City, is that there can be NO picking amongst alliance captains. Therefore they have to pick outside of the top eight, insuring that more people get involved in eliminations. It runs like a normal event, so one round of eliminations after one day of competition. The off season is where teams get to bring in new members and show the what FIRST is really about and making sure that more people get involved will help teams retain those new individuals and give the returning members practice to get back into competition mode for the upcoming season. Most off season events do their best to ensure that things are not so one sided.