[Jonathan Norris]

At a regional with a deep 'middle class', like a Midwest, New Hampshire, Florida, GTR being a 3rd to 6th alliance captain is going to be a disadvantage. Most of those regionals have 4-5 top level teams, lets take GTR as an example, the top teams will likely be 1114, 2056, 1126 with one or more of the 'upper middle class' performing like a top level team 1503, 188, 610, 2166, (hopefully my rookie team can perform in this level 2809). Then there is the rest of the 'middle class' 772, 771, 781, 865, 1006, 1075, 1141, 1246, 1305, 1334, 1547, and new entries into the middle class. I'm not saying these are all going to be the top teams at GTR, just speculation based on history, many of these teams will surprise us and many will disappoint.

So from that list you already have 20-22 teams, if you are an upper middle class team and have the 6th-8th seed, and don't get chosen in one of the top two alliances it might be advantageous to hold on to your picking position. I predict that simple dumping bots are going to prove to be very effective in this first week, and with a lower seed its very possible at a deeper regional to get two dumping bots with a 6th-8th seed. Having 3 scoring robots against a top alliance with only 2 scoring bots could, with the right strategy, prove to be dangerous.