[MrTechCenter]

We don't really have a formal method of making pick lists, we're often not in the top 8. But before you even start making your pick list, you have to assess the abilities of your own robot. What is your robot really good at? Where might you want help from an alliance partner? From there, you have to evaluate the other robots that have been performing consistently well and pick the one that you think would be the BEST fit for your robot. It's never a good idea to just pick the best robot available at the event if you're just going to get in each other's way, unless you are willing to drastically change your game plan, which I wouldn't recommend.

Example: We ended up as the 4th seed alliance captain at Chezy Champs back in August. We hadn't been an alliance captain at all that season. We knew that our finishing capability was extremely unreliable, but we were good at inbounding and playing defense, and we were OK at trussing. Our autonomous was also having tons of issues so we needed a first pick that could consistently do a 2-ball auton and a second pick that could do a 1-ball auton. And because of the heavy amount of defense in that game, we wanted a finisher that could lob the ball into the high goal by sitting in front of the low goal. The pick was easy for us: 399. They could easily be our finisher, they had a 2-ball auton, and they were veterans. The second pick was tricky, especially considering what we wanted in our second pick and where we were in the alliance selection. We ended up picking 2928 (whom we've never ever played with before the event, as they were from a different state) and they were very consistent at making their auton shot and proved to be an excellent partner. And we made these picks with pretty much zero scouting data. We spent the night before in the hotel room watching the recorded live stream from qualification matches to evaluate potential partners.