[Jonathan Norris]

I've been thinking about the new eliminations format for the last couple days, the need to schedule more time for Division and Einstein eliminations has become pretty obvious (maybe we will end on time this year!), but I am worried that alliance selection on Saturday morning gives a massive advantage to the top couple seeds.

As most of you know the top couple seeded alliances are usually formed before teams line up for alliance selection, it hasn't really been an issue in the past because alliance selection usually occurs directly after the last qualification match. But at champs this year the last matches are Friday afternoon and alliance selection doesn't occur until Saturday Morning, giving the top couple seeds a massive advantage as they can form alliances Friday afternoon and start strategizing their match and picking strategy. Its usually difficult to figure alliances past the top 3-4 seeds, thus the lower seeded alliances are going to be at a major strategic disadvantage going into alliance selection.

The only possible solution I can see is a split alliance selection, where the first round of alliance selection is done at the end of the day on Friday, and the other two rounds are done on Saturday morning (mainly to make sure teams don't pack up and leave on Friday??...).