Value & Credibility of 4th robots on an Alliance

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by saikiranra

At the Tesla division in 2015, the third pick on our alliance played more matches than our second pick. Both teams contributed a ton to the alliance and we were able to make it out of the division because of their work.

It worked out for you folks since you got to Einstein in 2015.
Same for us. In 2015, we got to Einstein where are 3rd alliance partner played only the 1st elimination match. The next 8 were played by our 4th alliance partner. No one was broken. We just decided to play the 3rd pick instead.

Here's the real challenge. How does an alliance politely and respectfully ask an alliance captain to sit out, when its obvious or best the other 3 robots play in a specific match? I would guess that there are many instances every season where this should happen, but alliances limit themselves because its not an option anyone would consider on the table.