[New Lightning]

I think the whole of this thread comes down to this, What is the spirit in which the event was organized? Was it meant to be an all out competition, who is the best, who could put together the best 1, or two, robot(s) and play the best game, or was it to encourage involvement in FIRST. If its the former then by all means the rules should be pick whoever you want and may the best alliance when. But if it is the latter, which I suspect is the case for most off season events, then there should be some limit to who you can and cannot pick for eliminations. And that decision belongs to those that organize the event on how best to encourage involvement of other teams. If you don't like the rules, then you don't have to go, find some other event to go to. Rather than going to an event then complaining about it here on CD or anywhere else.