[Warren Boudreau]

When you have about 30 minutes to determine what teams that you would like to try to ally with, most teams drop back to the old "who do we know" method. Since the teams next to them in the pits have been neighbors for two and a half grueling days, you remember them. Most times fondly.

It all boils down to perception. If the person in charge of stacking up teams has a bad perception of a team for whatever reason (sometimes it's just that one of the students on the team did something goofy in front of them), that team will fall down on the list.

What I try to stress to the students is that, during the competition, perception is everything. Good sportsmanship, gracious professionalism and the will to help out another team in need, will get you picked quicker than anything else. Assuming that you have a functional robot.