[Chris Fultz]

wow, tough situation.

First, it is disappointing that a team would act outwardly like that, even if they were disappointed with their 'draw'. That said, emotions run high in Atlanta and sometimes teams react quickly in a way that they would not react after a little while. Maybe someone on the team will notice this thread and respond privately.

One 'strategy' for you to consider, in the future, is to talk with your potential picks before alliance selections. Be sure their robots are working well, be sure they would go along with your strategy, and ask point blank - if we draft you , will you say yes and do you want to be aligned with us.

Make your decisions based on these discussions with some of your top pick teams. Remember, as alliance captain you make the calls on strategy and play - you need 2 teams that will go along with that. Those two teams might not be the teams with the 'best performing' robots. Sometimes teams pick alliance partners because they know they can work well together from past experience, even though another team may be higher on the mathematically based scouting sheet.

We have been in alliances that, in hindsight, might have been better if we had talked ahead of time and other selections had been made. This is not meant to imply one team might be 'above' playing with another, but sometimes teams just don't mesh together. Differences in philosophy, competitiveness, agressiveness, strategy can make what looks like a good alliance bad.