[IMDWalrus]

The debate here seems to boil down to one question.

The number one seed has definitely earned an advantage. But how much of an advantage is too much?

Considering that I've seen eight seeds beat one seeds multiple times at regionals, it hasn't proven to be too much of a problem so far. It's a bit different at smaller regionals, though. At Detroit, there were 33 teams competiting. Because of the small pool of teams, the number one alliance looks absolutely intimidating whereas the eighth alliance is...well, not nearly as much of a threat.

I almost do think that a serpentine system would be fairer. It's much kinder to the eighth seed, to be sure, and when you've got the first and second ranked robots paired together already, how much more of an advantage do they need?

There's even a possibility that FIRST could just use systems like that at regionals below a certain size. The eighth alliance at, say, Great Lakes has many, MANY more choices for their final team than they would at Detroit. That added freedom of choice could make all the difference, especially if it comes down to finding a robot that complements your alliance perfectly or just choosing the best of the nine robots left, with two or three of those not working correctly.

I don't think we'll be seeing a change like this anytime soon, but who knows?