[meaubry]

Cool Breeze,
At Ypsilanti Great Lakes Regional - three teams declined the opportunity to be the #1 seeds partner. Each CHOSE to control their own destiny (as they have the right to do so by finishing in the top 8 spots). Each did decline as gracefully as possible under the conditions.

The drama played out like a well scripted play.

Knowing that once a team declines, they cannot be selected by any other team after that - AND, guessing(?) ahead of time that each might decline them, they did the smart thing in forcing the issue and making the 3 teams decline. If any one of them had said yes, they would have had a fantastic partner - so , they had nothing to lose and a whole lot to gain.

Strategically this eliminated any opportunity from the top 8 teams to pair up and become a "super" alliance.

I am not a supporter of the serpentine draft, but even more so - I am not a supporter of the top 8 picking from among themselves. It's just a quirky opinion I have about eliminating uncomfortable and potentially embarassing situations, like forcing a public decline.

I will say that I was disappointed in the people in the crowd that choose to boo the 3 teams that did decline the #1 seeded team.

I do not believe any of the choices were a surprise to them and it is somewhat disappointing that the folks whom were booing, didn't really understand what was going on "behind the scenes".

Next time perhaps, someone could instruct the crowd to "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain".

Great strategy 66 and 217 - brilliant move.


Added note -
I think you might see something like this play out in Atlanta also, so it should be interesting to see what transpires.

Mike Aubry