Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

Do yourself and everyone else a favor and skip proclaiming yourself "gracious" in any action. That's for others to determine.

Recognizing one or two MAJOR sponsors (in the form of "Team xxxx, backed by/powered by/along with/whatever you want...") seems to me to be extremely classy and very appropriate.

And most importantly, as always: have fun with it! You've earned that right by being picked.

At the Wisconsin Regional, 192 (GTR) accepted the Alliance #8 invitation "with the passion of 1000 burning suns". The alliance must have been agreed upon and rehearsed because the 2nd pick, 1675 (UPS), couldn't muster up 1000 burning suns but promised "to deliver". It was pretty awesome all around. The crowd loved it.

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

Fun Fact: This was actually started by 469 at MARC 2012 when they invited 68 to join their alliance, and then continued at IRI 2012 when 68 invited 469 to join their alliance. It later was adopted by 233 at one of their off-seasons and then became a song.


In regards to the OP: If you're going for the very professional look, do as Ether said and include your biggest sponsor. If you're going for a more fun, slightly less professional look, I'd suggest stroking your chin and pretending to think for 5 seconds, then saying "sure".

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

Just once I'd love to see a team come out to the field and say " Team xxxx rejects our reality and accepts yours!"

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

I think saying "Graciously Accept" is a wonderful FIRST-ism and transcends any original meaning of the word "gracious". I hope teams will continue to say it, as I personally like the tradition (I also enjoy variations on it).

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

Simon:
While I agree that it is a FIRST-ism,
but, at best, only for those who understand the history.

One can accept graciously, but not by stating they are doing so.

Or, as Ether wrote:
-Karlis

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

Not quite rehearsed, we usually just tend to make some dumb UPS joke :p

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

I agree!
Look at the synonyms to the word too.

I don't understand why some of you are annoyed with "team xxxx graciously accepts", it's clean, it's professional and to the point.

Maybe you've heard it so much you're sick of it but there are lots of new people in the stands every year who think it's nice and professional.

I think stating a main sponsor or two is nice too, as long as it's quick an not an Emmy acceptance speach.

I like a lot of the other suggestions here too, fun and original (as long as they aren't too long!)

To the OP, anything you want as long as you get your point across, and done with taste and not offensive.

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

Standard procedure for us is "One Five Nine would love to play with you."

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

On a related point, I have noticed very few alliances, when they have two and are picking the third, actually say both teams. At TC this weekend, I think the #1 was the only one to mention 857 and 3688; all the others were just the captain's number. It should be a conference, and credit should be shared for the pick IMO.

Also, one team (ICE cubed) ended the acceptance by saying "we would like to join this cool alliance" /pun

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

[Must remember to check black hole CD topics before posting. Must remember to check black hole CD topics before posting.]

I agree with "clean" and "nice", and I'll ignore "to the point" for now.

Since it's a fundamental misuse of the word (as well as a malapropism), it can't come off as professional, especially to the reporters covering the event.

[Scotty - more power. We need to reach escape velocity...]

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

I'm going to brag that of the 15 years that I have participated in FIRST, the 2014 Dallas alliance selections had one of the best invitation/acceptance speeches I ever heard.

#1 RoboWranglers Team 148 (Vader Robot) would like to invite Team 359 to the Dark Side.
Team 359 The Hawaiian Kids, gladly accepts joining the Dark Side.

-The one that Texas Torque and 1817 did was pretty awesome as well. Maybe they can chime in. That huge Wrench was just hilarious!

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

148 used to be the kings of the alliance invitations. :(

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

Well.... maybe you're right, and that it is a misuse of the word. As I mentioned before, if you look a the synonyms of that word, it sort of makes sense.
Anywho... you (all) will probably continue to hear this phrase until someone from FIRST tells teams to change it... because not every FIRST team is here on CD being educated, and so unknowing teams are just going to copy what they hear or do what they are told is acceptable by other teams.

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

We were told by a few TX "higher-ups" that we were being disrespectful to the other teams at the event, and coming across negatively to other teams, and to the event judges.

Now, we err on the side of normalcy. :) Though we have indulged ourselves a bit this year.

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

Team 2363 Triple Helix usually responds with "Team 2363 Triple Helix accepts your gracious offer."