[Eugenia Gabrielov]

I think the fact that alternates have been eliminated is extremely significant.

On the upside, an alliance won't be left stranded in the case of a mechanical malfunction. Since strategy is paramount it will be important to have as many functioning robots available as possible. Also, this will give teams that were balanced on the edge a chance to make it into finals when they may not otherwise get that chance. I'm sorry if I missed this part, but how exactly would these alternates be picked?

On the downside, a team won't be able to reenter competition even if they fix themselves. This puts a lot of stress in the alliance. So if the standby team breaks, they're essentially stuck again. I wonder if there will be any team updates on this subject?