[Jonathan Norris]

I know everyone likes to look at the top teams this year and predict them winning the championship, and most likely one of them will be on the winning alliance. But what I am looking for is this years 987 of last year, or 296 in '06, the team that makes major improvements over their regional performance. if you remember back to 06' a big part of 217, 296, and 522 winning performance was 296 improving from a 'good' team in their regional competitions to an 'elite' team at the championship. The same thing basically happened last year with 987 (I'm not as familiar with their regional performance), but I believe they improved a lot at the championship and really knew how to drive that bot in the elims (remember some of the ridiculous caps they made with defense on them??).

So watching the webcasts on friday and saturday morning I'll be looking for those teams that really step up their performance and fly under the radar a bit. Because I know all the top teams will be hunting for those great alliance selections, some picks may not have the pedigree thats expected and surprise some people.

Edit: post 610!!! w00t