[youngace89]

One factor which has not yet been discussed but played a major role in our decision making at the 10000 Lakes regional this year is the role of seeding and the bracket.

We were pretty sure going into the regional that we didn't have much of a chance of winning against the great palindrome of 2052, 525, and 2502, so, as usual, our goal was to make it to the finals and get a wildcard, like we had done the 2 previous years,

We ended up ranking 5th. Another captain was selected ahead of us, so we moved up to the 4th spot, and then 2846, who moved up to third, selected us. Had our goal been to win the regional, we probably would have declined them and picked 2502 or 2823, who were better high goal shooters. However, we knew that if we declined them, we would end up as the captains of the 4th alliance, and we would have to play the dominant 1st alliance with 2052 and 525 before we reached the finals.

So we accepted and ended up making it to the finals and getting a wildcard.
2502 and 2823 paired up to form an alliance which had a much better chance of beating 2052 and 525 than ours did, but they had to play them in the semifinals because of their seed in the bracket, so I would still rather have been in our position.