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In a game like Breakaway, selecting alliance partners based on their rank might not be as great of a strategy as selecting your alliance partners to suit your needs. In Breakaway, as we all know, the field is divided into three zones. In the ideal alliance, you might want to consider selecting partners that specialize in a particular zone to play each match effectively.

This strategy kind of goes along with the idea that one should build their robot to excel in one particular aspect of the game.

While selecting, consider your strategy, do you want a robot in each field, two in the midfield? two in the near zone? (Now, if it is your game strategy to have everyone to move about the zones, perhaps a diverse alliance is not what you need, but similar robots)

Many teams out their may have the strategy to have an alliance to specialize in each zone. Therefore the ideal team in the far zone will have the ability to remove the three balls in autonomous and then be quick and agile to defend.
The team at midfield ideally will be able to recycle the balls from overhead to the near zone. The robot in the near zone should be quick, agile, score effectively at close range, and perhaps get balls out of corners.

It is to my belief that this is the best strategy, and I think it is this strategy that contributed to the victory of the underdog alliance of 3357, 1243, and 1254 over the first ranked alliance of 1718, 1918, and 1896 at the WM District Competition.