Alliance Selection at the Event

The format

At all official FRC events the 8-alliance tournament is used. After qualification, the top eight ranked teams become alliance captains, with Alliance 1 led by the highest seed. Per the manual, the selection process begins after a break of 8 minutes following the posting of scores from the final qualification match, and each team may send at least one and at most three STUDENT representatives to the floor; a non-student may additionally represent the team only if the team sends exactly two students (so adults can never outnumber students on the floor).

A standard event builds alliances of three teams (a captain plus two picks). Championship divisions use four-team alliances (a captain plus three picks), which adds a third selection round. The lessons below describe the standard three-team format.

The serpentine (snake) order

Alliance selection is a serpentine draft. In the first round captains pick in seed order: Alliance 1 picks first, then 2, 3, ... 8. In the second round the order reverses: Alliance 8 picks first, back up to Alliance 1. This reversal balances the draft so the lowest captain gets the first second-round pick. At a standard event each alliance ends with three teams; events that use four-team alliances run a third round (descending again). Every standard event, regardless of size, grants each alliance a backup-team coupon that can substitute a team in during the playoffs under specific rules. Championship divisions are the exception, not an extra case: since Championship alliances already pick four teams during selection itself (via the third round above), there is no backup-team provision there at all.

Captains can pick other captains

A crucial subtlety: an alliance captain may pick another, lower-seeded captain. If a captain (say, the seed-6 captain) accepts an invitation from a higher alliance, they leave their captain spot, and the next-highest unselected team is promoted to become a captain in their place. This means your picklist must account for the fact that some teams you want may themselves be captains who could get pulled up or who might decline you.

Accept or decline

When a captain extends an invitation, the chosen team's representative must immediately say "accept" or "decline." If they decline, they become ineligible to be picked by any alliance for the rest of selection (and they can no longer become a backup team either) — declining doesn't just cost you that one alliance, it takes you out of the pool entirely, per official rule T606. The one exception is alliance leads: a captain who declines an invitation keeps their captain spot and keeps picking. Declining is still a real strategic move for a team that expects to remain (or be promoted into) a captain spot, but it is not a way to hold out for a "better" invitation from someone else — that invitation will never come.

The pick timer (rule T605)

Picks are time-limited by a pick timer (rule T605). The clock that a captain has to make a selection is 45 seconds (0:45) in round 1 and 1 minute 30 seconds (1:30) in round 2, with a 2-minute break between rounds. Per the official FIRST pick-process flow chart:

• If the captain makes a valid pick in time, play continues normally.
• If time expires but they are making a good-faith effort (walking to the emcee, starting to talk), no violation occurs.
• If time expires with no good-faith effort and it is not the final pick of the round, the captain is skipped and the emcee moves to the next captain.
• On the final pick of a round (with no other outstanding violations), an offending alliance is simply assigned the next-highest-ranked unselected team.

If a team declines while an alliance is on the clock, the pick timer resets and restarts; no other alliance may jump in. If all remaining alliances in a round have incurred timer violations, each is revisited in order to pick or be auto-assigned.

Doing it well

Bring calm, prepared representatives with the paper picklist and a clear plan for likely scenarios ("if our top two are gone, we take #5 unless they're a captain"). Decide in advance who speaks. Stay flexible: the board changes with every pick, so be ready to jump to a different list (offense vs defense) based on who is left.