Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

This is the most important post in the entire thread.

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

I'll always stick to 'gratefully accepts', and 'respectfully declines'.

However, this leads me to a little bit of a tangent.

If another alliance captain declines, that is their right. Don't boo.
Seriously. I've seen this happen so many times!
"Team XXX declines" booOOOOOOooOOOOOO.
They're well within their rights to form their own alliance if they so choose.

Back to the original point - If a team wants to do something fun, that's all fine and good - just keep it short. Just like recognizing key sponsors instead of all of them, not everyone wants to hear your two-page poem when a simple one-liner would do.

Keep it simple and to-the-point, and you'll probably be fine.

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

So much this. People need to understand a declination isn't always personal. I've even seen teams boo when a non-alliance captain team declines due to a broken robot. Not only is it incredibly rude, but it also makes FIRST look bad as an organization.

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

Danke.

We've never been in the position to decline (and are typically more confident in the selector's alliance-forming abilities than ours), but it's so frustrating when the boos happen.

I've never seen any reason to boo at an FRC event. This is only my third year, though, so maybe there has been an acceptable reason in the past, but I would be seriously worried if there was...

Anyway, we've never really done anything that crazy. Maybe we will at our next regional, though. :cool:

I wonder how many of those "boo"s are actually just "ooo"s. For many people, is surprising to see a team turn down an offer to ally with a higher ranked team. I'm sure there have been "boo"s, though, and you're right: booing is almost never appropriate at a FIRST event.

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

In my experience, the first time a team is declined it is generally a quiet, hushed "ooo" that goes through the crowd with a little murmur. But I have been at an event before where the #1 seed was declined by 3 or 4 seeded teams. The last team that declined definitely received a "boo" from a good portion of the crowd.

On the topic, I generally use/see "Gratefully accept" and "Respectfully decline" outside of the more creative options being discussed here.

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

Booing it not cool. I think a bit of that comes from friends and family that are not used to the events. If and when it happens explain to them why we don't do it.

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

Lol how did I not think of that, that's great! Ty! :D

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

I really don't like it when people list off their sponsors. I personally find it a bit annoying and it wastes time, but maybe that's just me

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

I notice almost every team says "graciously accepts" You're not Graciously accepting any more at this point since everyone is saying it.

What my team representative said this year was
"We accept, 2386's friend request".
After he listed our sponsors and everything.
Everyone had a good laugh about it!

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

Half of our team watched "Talladega Nights" on the way to DC...so when invited, our Captain replied "If you can shake it...we can bake it!"

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

My team made me say " team 3082 has read and fully agrees to the terms and conditions of this alliance". When I was in line I thought of saying but did not say " ill answer you BUT FIRST LET ME TAKE A SELFIE". It would have been funny but I feel it would be a tad but disrespectful:D

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

They actually handed out a "script" at the NC regional mandating what your lines were when inviting and accepting. The word "gracious" was (I believe) in both the acceptance and declination.

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

The script was goofy, but even with it someone still managed to list off all of their sponsors during the picks. Ugh.

Re: Alliance Invitation Phrase
 

You can say pretty much whatever you want, just make sure that you say the team numbers loud and clear. The mumblers make it difficult to hear what the picks are with all of the background noise going on.