Winning a Match vs. Winning Strategically

[Anupam Goli]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Yup, that's super sketchy and should be frowned upon. What the poster said is that all teams in the top 8 go sit in corners and game the system somehow. I'd allege that teams asking others to throw matches is by no means the norm and certainly not something "everyone" is doing at 10 AM on Saturday.

Most likely what everyone is doing at 10 AM is trying to find their ideal partners and going over a picking strategy to break up any power alliances. On webcasts and in the stands, the alliance selections look like they are done on the spot, but behind each team number being called is hours of strategy, scouting, analysis, and talking with the team. You might call these alliances "pre-arranged", but if you don't want teams to talk with each other about alliance selections, Situations like Newton in 2006 and Northern Lights this year would not pop up and eliminations in those competitions would be less exciting. Alliance picking strategies win blue banners.