[quote=@HylianRose]Hmm... That wasn't necessarily in the original plans, since a Knight/Noble pairing is meant to be a strong bond, but I suppose if we think about it their first Knight might not always be the best fit. I certainly don't mind having a first week were there are little to no pairings and the characters are getting introduced to one another [b]however[/b] I do find that moments like that, we tend to get lost in the weeds, so to speak. We'll spend so much time on the intro and pairings that we'll never get to the good story bits. That's my only caveat to that. [/quote]

You've got some good points, I feel like maybe having no knight or no noble might have to be a special circumstance. Having at least a base ground for most knights and nobles would probably be best for cutting to the chase. If my memory of high school is anything to go by, there's plenty of drama potential even with people you're already well acquainted with.

There could always be some kind of situation or assignment where pairings are scrambled to do a task or something if we wanted shuffling around for shenanigans though.

I'm not really sold on ranking-based teams, sort of for the same reason you bring up.