[artK]

I have to agree that 1-8 1-8 8-1 works for IRI. The 7th and 8th seeded alliances the past few years have been (Used TBA):

2014:
7: 359 148 910 2337
8: 624 33 477 2481

2013:
7: 3947 624 245
8: 195 1538 1241

2012:
7: 973 2590 548
8: 16 359 233

Those are some solid alliances. #8 has a couple of world champions or other Einstein teams from their respective years.. Serpentine would let them get quite a bit better.