[Billfred]

I wholeheartedly agree--a little bit of salesmanship never hurt at all. None of my teams, past or present, had ever made it to eliminations before today at Palmetto, let alone been the alliance captain. If nearly any team had found me and spoke about their robot in a convincing manner, there's a reasonable chance they'd have swayed my attitude towards them, making their way into the consideration set.

(A particularly skilled marketer who figured me out might try partial cue listing, where they'd list only a few parts of a whole list, which then inhibits my memory of the other members of the list. Go ahead, name toothpastes in your head past Crest, Colgate, and Aim without Googling--a group of five college students I was with couldn't get past three more. Consumer Behavior finally pays off!)

Of course, our scouting system was only my gut instinct--next year, we're coming prepared.