My understanding had always been that "available" meant "undrafted", which would be any team not called at any point during alliance selection, which excludes declines. Note that the list of teams undrafted is referred to as "available" during alliance selection in the audience screen program (the link between FMS and the AV crew).
I will also quote the last part of Game Manual 5.4.1, which is about alliance selection:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by 2016 rules 5.4.1
Of the remaining eligible Teams, the highest seeded Teams (up to eight (8)) should remain on standby and be ready to play as a BACKUP TEAM.
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That leads me to believe, in the current rules, that it is assumed that "available" is determined exclusively by the alliance selection process, not the volition of the team(s) in question. I don't like it, and I think this needs to be Q&A'd, both as a question and as a concern given the conditions this year.
Likewise, in 548's case, the robot/team in question was undrafted, and likely not bagged, and from gist of the OP, that was enough for the powers the be at the event to call said team as the backup.
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Dean's List Semi-finalist 2010
1747 Harrison Boiler Robotics 2008-2010, 2783 Engineers of Tomorrow 2011, Event Volunteer 2012-current
DISCLAIMER: Any opinions/comments posted are solely my personal opinion and does not reflect the views/opinions of FIRST, IndianaFIRST, or any other organization.