[Jon Stratis]

I wouldn't say any alliance selection decisions are irrational. Some are unprepared, some are based on faulty data, and some are based on different value propositions.

Perhaps the biggest thing to remember during alliance selection is that no one has perfect information. Every team representative down there is dealing with a state of asymmetrical information, in which every team is basing their decisions on different information. Sure, you can say that they all have access to the same information - match results, for example - but the process of collecting data and processing it into a usable pick list causes the data itself to undergo a different transformation for every team, and end up being viewed differently by every alliance representative. As a result, we end up with picks that may or may not agree with any given set of data or viewpoint.

Honestly, I find the uncertainty going into alliance selection rather exciting.