[Mark Pettit]

It has been my experience in MOST cases that it takes not only a great strategy and robot but also the luck of the draw (i.e. being alligned with decent team mates throughout the qaulifying rounds) to be ranked number one at the end. I've seen plenty an awesome team/robot qualify outside of the top 8 largely in part because they just didn't get the right alliances to make it work for them. Since there is even a hint of luck of the draw involved in qualifying, I think that this is a fantastic rule and I think that the elimination/finals rounds are going to be more exciting than ever because of it.
Way to go (again) FIRST.