[Boltman]

Alliance request = customized alliance strength "which is good"

I am a firm believer in "advertising" to pre-selected alliance partners. I am not a fan of saying to any team "don't pick us because we want " I think that is corny and have had that happen to us. We go the other direction and talk to those we want to pair with and limit conversation with those we don't feel we are a good fit for (for both our benefit)

Face it, there are those you work well with or those that compliment your team in some fashion and there is no shame in seeking a preferential alliance make-up in eliminations. Eliminations hard to win , you need all the help you can get.

We scout every match so our detailed scouting info is valuable to other teams we use that to start the conversation with teams we don't already know , those that do know us know we do our scouting already, many have had us a partners before too, so they know how we operate and what we bring to an alliance.

I believe in every elimination there are those alliances who are matched and those that aren't and usually the matched alliances prevail.

The way we do it is if we are captain then of course we choose, if not then based on knowing our bot and knowing all the top 8-12 potential captains , we then visit those that may be a good fit with us and those that don't match/or duplicate us we probably don't visit. We talk potential winning strategy and what would win the regional we are at. We then ensure them we can find another team to compliment our new-found alliance strength. Every bot we have selected third ourselves has been solid due to scouting.

This works for us, we usually end up with a strong to very strong alliance..but remember this only works if your team is solid and you do extensive scouting as a bonus. Otherwise why would a captain pick you? "Sell yourselves based on where you actually rank (be honest about your capabilities) " and that will do it...take care of your part and the rest will follow.

Once in a while we "learn" of a team off our radar because they reached out to us... perhaps they had a bad day 1 BUT resolved it and it shows in the rankings climb...I appreciate teams that talk to use to explain "why", if the data supports it and the story then they all the sudden they make our 2nd day pick list and a few watches the second day.

It is all about "doing your best" and you rely on two other teams so why not try to get the best partners for all three teams ? It makes total sense.