[thatprogrammer]

[quote=SoftwareBug2.0;1429519]

In the first case, the robot that should have been ranked first will most likely be picked early and the alliances will look sort of like what they would have if the rankings had been perfect.

In the second case, I think the results would be much more severe. First, it guarantees a team a slot in the eliminations that shouldn't be there. Second, it's likely to change all of the aliance pairings because there will be a bunch of declines. This reduces the value of being the 2nd or 3rd alliance captain and some team ranked just out of the top 8 will be hosed.

/QUOTE]

The multiple denials would lead to more teams outside of the top eight being picked, The teams just outside of the top right might even get to play with an amazing team (other than the number 1, who wouldn't be very good). The overall strength of alliances would still be fairly high, excluding alliance 1. Still, that one team outside of the top eight that gets selected by the number one would be unfortunate.