The PNW West Valley event going on right now is only picking 7 alliances. They have 24 teams at the event so I don’t see why they wouldn’t just pick 8 alliances. Is there some rule that I don’t know about that requires backup bots to be available or something like that? This also seems kind of unfair to teams that don’t get picked, because they could’ve gotten district points but instead won’t be playing. Also if they give the first alliance a bye, then they will not be able to earn the 10 points from winning that series. Does anyone at the event know the reasoning behind this?
It’s happened before at very small events: Waterloo 2005 had 24 teams, 7 alliances.
I think the reasoning at the time was that it was better to have backup robots available than end up with broken robots having to play and decide the finals. Nowadays, with less robot carnage by design, and more reliable components, I’m not sure if that’s a good trade.
Since there’s already a thread about it, I’m closing this one. 
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