At a point when the most recent group to be called was in the 30s, Chen Huan came to us. I'd sent him on stealth scouting duty, to try and find out anything useful about those we were grouped with. It wasn't good news.
We had already known that almost every group was seeded with at least one large starting alliance, large being 200 disciples or more. The best bet for individuals and small partnerships was for there to be a second one, or a few different "medium" sized groups of usually 50 to 80 or so that would be able to mutually defend against the big one. Then, if those not allied with others were lucky or skilled, they'd have a good chance to move away in the chaos without being attacked much or having to expend much internal Qi.
