[Eric G]

Perhaps there needs to be some discussion about how to do selections... What do your teams do?

Our team (343) tries to build a list of our top 24 or so choices by Friday evening. It is reconsidered during Saturday. If we are fortunate enough to be in the top eight, the person on the field just has to look up into the stands. One of our people in the stands holds up a chalkboard with the recommended team number. The people on the field cannot keep up with such a complex thing as a shifting list on the fly... (However, that doesn't excuse the team from selecting team numbers that don't exist or from picking someone with a higher seed during the first round of picking.) Our people in the stands are marking off numbers and communicating with our person on the field. If you have a tentative list that is long enough, no matter how many of your top picks are taken, you still have a number ready to call out.

<my opinion>
As for the rankings throughout the day... I honestly don't believe that list is good for very much. Yes, it does provide the list of the top eight teams. However, I believe that some teams do well or poorly because of the teams with whom they are paired. Also, the team ranked 13 might look better than the 30th team on a list of rankings, but the rankings don't tell you if #13 is going to cooperate with you. A helpful #30 can be far better than a stubborned #13. The quality of an alliance partner is to be measured with far more information than just their previous productivity while randomly paired.
</my opinion>

I would enjoy hearing about what your teams do to prepare for alliance selections! Please share!!!