[Mike Ciance]

here is a radicl idea for the structure of elimination rounds:

after qualification rounds, take the top [however-many] teams (no alliance picking) and send them into a second series of rounds similar to the qualification rounds. it would be set up so that each possible alliance of robots is used once. then the top 4 are taken to move on.
the team with the most wins from that series of rounds would choose an alliance partner, and the other 2 robots would be arbitrarily paired together. these two alliances would then face-off in a 3-out-of-5 final for the championship.