"Strategic" Alliance selection

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Leav

So, to the point:

1. If someone is going to select you, will they talk to you and set it in stone? (so that you can tell others to not plan on you etc.)
2. say TeamA is seeded below you and would like to select TeamB, would they (TeamA, TeamB or both) approach you and ask you not to select TeamB?
3. Is it general practice to honor such a request if it is made?

1. The number 1 seed does for their first pick sometimes, and similar high ranked alliances may or may not. This discussion is by no means guaranteed, and is more common in years like 2007 where direct robot interaction required pre-pick variation.
2. I've never heard of this happening.
3. Absolutely not.

As for alliance selection, picking teams you know will reject you is a good strategy and should not be discouraged, since to the victor go the spoils. In my personal opinion, I'm not going to pick someone JUST because they'll reject me, but I'll pick someone that I would want on my alliance if they had an impulsive change of heart, even if I'm certain they won't. (I.e. if I'm 469, I'm not going to invite 469 clones 1, 2, and 3 just to get them to reject, but if 1114 said they'd reject me, I'd try to pick them)