Somber alliance selections
 

Being an outsider looking at webcasts to get my fix i find the alliance selections a bit dull. I would like to see some excitement. No , not from the crowd but the selectees.
Sure, the first eight can walk out there all cool and suave and struting their stuff but the next 16 please show some enthusiasm. Dare i say walk alittle faster, skip or hop to the field. Maybe a fist pump or somersault. If your the last team picked you should run to the field and drop to your knees and say, "yes, Yes, YES!!!."
OK, i understand that your the lead scout, most likely, and your brain is just this side of exploding and on top of that some jerk wants you to throw out your work and pick so and so team. This is the time to let down your hair and have some fun. We won't think your rubbing it in our face or look silly. Have you looked around, there are people in costumes doing wierd dances. You'll be fine.
Oh, one more thing. I don't care how you say yes, just say it loud.:D

Re: Somber alliance selections
 

As someone who's been down on the field, this is not the time to let your hair loose. Mistakes at alliance selections can and will cost you the regional/championship. This was the time you wouldn't want to talk to me, I was focused and attentive. Maybe a hop or a skip ok, but you need to pay attention to everything. Alliance selections last 10 minutes, it doesn't need to be action packed.

Re: Somber alliance selections
 

+1

I did some searching but couldn't find it. Anyone have video of 118 picking 1114 in Galileo? That was pretty funny.

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I didn't see the Galileo selections, but I think 68 at IRI gets the prize for funniest selection.

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Alliance selections already excite me just from the fact that it's so suspenseful. I doubt it needs much more. Interesting thought though!

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I missed this what happen?

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Came up riding a horse on a broom and in a funny cowboy accent and picked 1114. It was some comic relief in the middle of a pretty tense time.

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2914's representative (not a giant fellow) bear hugged both the alliance captain who picked them (620) and the MC (Justin Koca) at the DC regional. It was pretty awesome.

118 always has a "gag" to go along with their alliance selection at Championship. This year it was a cowboy act (featuring a 10 gallon hat, bad accent, fake 'stache, and a broom horse). A couple years ago it was Hulk Hogan-themed.

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1675 always tries to do something fun for alliance selections.

One year we had our selection/selector (forget which) sign for a package and they got really confused :(

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I didn't see the selection of 1114 but I did watch then pick 4039. 118's captain had their horse whisper the selection in his ear before choosing them.

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I think we need a return of the creative alliance selection contest.

Kill two birds with one stone (the other being the overuse of "graciously accept"--see thread linked from the first post of the linked thread).

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148 (much in the same spirit as 118) used to do some really fun alliance selections at Dallas. I distinctly remember them throwing a VEX football with the teams number on it down from the top of the Colosseum and had their scout catch it.

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What I would like to see: fun, choreographed silliness. Act like you've been there before, and have fun with it.

What I wouldn't like to see: The FRC version of a touchdown dance. Act like you've been there before.

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Our gag this year is at 13:00... Although he did say "graciously accept" :rolleyes:

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DC 2012 was prretty creative but my favortie was the team member who came after being picked and simple said "I have nothing creative to say, so I'll just say yes."
The audience got a good chuckle out of that.

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I don't mean to be a party-pooper, but I watch alliance selections for the alliance selections. I do appreciate a clever selection or response, but in my opinion, alliance selections really, really don't need to be "spiced up." In the course of an event, alliance selections are pivotal and that's what makes them fascinating.

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118 usually does some special thing. In 2011, they made a "magic" e watt lightbulb that they'd bring up and power on when they accepted. 3928 at CowTown ThrowDown answered my request by saying "Neutrinos usually don't bond with things..."

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I swear, the next time I hear a regional volunteer gripe about "graciously accept" during the driver meeting (yes, this happened at one of our regionals), I am personally going to go to every pit and ask every team to ensure that their member on the field finds a way to use those words during the selection ceremony.

Watching the people with this unreasonable aversion to a harmless tradition of a short phrase of slightly-questionable English squirm in discomfort is far more entertaining than any other "we accept" message could possibly be.

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I take it you also enjoy the "tradition" of yelling "Robot!"?

The reasoning behind not using "graciously accept" is stated here.

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Amusing/interesting that the OP in that very thread found it fitting to add the qualifier, "just getting caught up in semantics." ;)

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I believe that the ORIGINAL use of "graciously accept" was that a team was originally intending to say "gratefully accept", but accidentally substituted "graciously". This was back in 1999 or 2000 or so.

Ever since then, probably about 90% of ALL FRC acceptances have used "graciously accept", and a fair number of the declines are quite similar for some reason. It gets really old after a while.

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Semantics (the study of meaning applied to human verbal communication) is incredibly important when trying to accomplish one of the primary tasks of real-world, day-to-day engineering: clearly disseminating technical information across noisy channels.

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The only objections I've ever heard over "graciously accept" are from people who clearly know what was meant and are upset that it was not communicated according to their set of prescriptive rules, not from people who legitimately found it confusing.

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Yeah, we got a kick out of that one :D

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We did this at KC this year too: http://youtu.be/QFHMrHR_mIg?t=5m1s "If Neutrinos had an electrical charge, we'd be excited to be on your alliance... We accept"

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As a practicing magician I was considering having Angry Erik pick 4 cards out of a deck to determine who we would pick. Unfortunately, our picks were not determined until several minutes prior to selections and I did not feel comfortable enough with our picks to try and get the trick ready instead I focused on figuring out who we would actually be picking. :(

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Just make it so the other 3 teams don't exist. :rolleyes: That way if you mess up, you look like a different kind of stupid. :D

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Hahaha, not quite what I meant though. He would pick 3, 9, 2, and 8 in that order for Neutrino's just to give an example. Or Ace, Ace, Ace, 4 for Simbotics.

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I can't say I've brought a fake pony out, but as drive captain I did normally do puns. Ex. "We'd like to make a storm with Team 1917 Tempest" (Bayou 2012) and "We'd like to Breakaway from the pack with 3937 Breakaway" (Razorback 2013). They are just about as cheesy as the ones the judges use when announcing awards.

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1676 delivered our first unique alliance selection acceptance at Monty Madness earlier this month: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-D1iIBNDUs#t=02m55s. Hey, it was an off-season :rolleyes:.

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Would it really matter what cards were picked? The crowd couldn't see from a dsance, and you can say whatever you want.

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we told our head scout that if we werent picked, he needed to run out onto the field, crash alliance selections, and yell "WE VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE"

he didnt

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I don't blame him. A stunt like that might not go over so well.

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If it was at an offseason, I'd laugh, sometimes we get a bit too serious. At a regional though, probably not a good idea.

What did it say? Yes?

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Yes, it said "YES"

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Where is your performing spirit!? While it would not really have mattered I would really have enjoyed having Erik read off the cards as he picked them. I also have several jumbo decks I might have decided to use. Oh well, I guess we will just have to see what talent we have on our team for next year!

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As much as I like Canadian events, alliance selections are always a lot more interesting any time I've been to events in the US. Canadian alliance selections always consist of the diligent reading of sponsor names and I've never seen anyone use props. I laughed the first time I heard an alliance captain use the one word "Yes" acceptance.

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1676 had a ball being picked by Team 1228 at the innagrual MidKnight Mayhem last month: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz-HgG8M90o#t=04m46s

Thanks for not calling it foul :p