Rank The Announcers
 

Just popped on the webcast for Newton field.. and I can't stand it any more.

So the poll... rate the announcer! Vote for your favorite if you've heard them all.

Re: Rank The Announcers
 

Which ever field Ron is announcing. He's the best announcer around.

They just replaced the guy in Galileo, thank God. The replacement is pretty good. The original guy was awful.

Edit: Ron's on Archemedies, buy only announcing teams not play by play.

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I think the anouncers on Curie are great. They have the colored hair. They are doing a great job at getting the crowd pumped, putting out a lot of energy to get the job done. They also had the crowd sing Happy Birthday to Andy Grady :D

Second favorite? Whichever field Blair is on, he's awesome. I think it's Archimedes.

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Archimedes is the best. He isnt annoying, but yet isnt too quiet.

i cant even watch the newton webcast. My head feels like its gonna explode.

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the announcers probably read chiefdelphi as well .. so dont you think certain comments can be offensive to them ??

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We aren't saying that they are horrible people. If they read CD that's great. If they are offended, oh well. It's nothing I wouldn't say to him if I met him. Listen to the webcast, every 5th word and the last word of every sentance is "Baby" or "Helloooo".

Quite frankly, his pattern of speech is annoying.

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The Archimedes announce, Dan Green, is pretty good, but I love the Curie guys too.

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EXTREMELY OVER USED PHASE AT NEWTON FIELD:
"HELLO....HELLO..."

"BABY.... BABY.... BABY..."

"BAM... BAM... BAM..."

"HOT... HOT... HOT...."

" HELLO... BABY.... HOT... HOT... BAM... BAM"

"THIS MATCH IS OVER.... THIS MATCH IS OVER....."

:ahh: :p :ahh: BABY!

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I agree, my dad just came over to the stairs and said something like "What the (censor)-heck-(censor) are you watching!?!?"

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lol I loved that guy, he really got the crowd going during the finals. I just think of him as kinda like the Dick Vital of FIRST robotics.

" That's team710 baby "

He ran through the crowd during elimination. It was awesome he was warmly recieved. The other guys were great always.

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Even though at times there were different people archimedes was the best....im a little biased though...

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The Newton announcer...

Yeah, he did repeat some things a lot. But, he was energetic and understood the game, so he gets some points there. Some of the annoucers sounded like Mr. Rogers on Valium, and at least to me seemed like they might not know quite what was going on.

Although if I had to hear about one more 5 point possibilty...

-Andy A.

Re: Rank The Announcers
 

Mark Leon as MC rules all the way......and for announcer, the Newton man was hilarious. Thanks for making the game fun to watch!

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Ok granted the announcer on Newton ("Sir Charles") might sound repititive and annoying to people watching a webcast not in competition, but for those of us who were there know how much that guy rocked. He got our whole division cheering and laughing with phrases like "going for the hookup baby,", "lets get it certified," and other funny phrases. He even went as far as to run through all the stands and everyone gave him giant hugs and lifted him up. In my opinion he was one of the best announcers for any field I've ever been on.

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Though I didn't see all of the fields, and thus don't have an unbiased opinion....I love Ron. So much. :D He is so awesome at announcing!

Edit: Though, I would have loved to hear "They're wicked going for the bah!" :D

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I was at the competition and I found his pattern of speech really annoying and my team agrees with me. I liked the announcer at Archimedes, though I only heard him for a little while.

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It's all about Newton, baby. I loved that guy, to be able to keep up that level of energy for 3 days is a wonder in itself...Given he was repetitive, but he knew how to work the crowd...and from what I could hear, Newton was the loudest field out there :)

-Bill

Re: Rank The Announcers
 

How about Einstein? Dave is the greatest!

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Yah I have to agree there.......He is definately the BEST MC out there. As for announcers, Steve Warren (Curie Announcer with Crazy Hair) is great! He's pretty cool too!

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Personally, the Einstein Anouncer had to of been my favorite.

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i was just about to say that, however I am sure that all announcers were awesome!

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HELLO!
Get a script for God sakes!
He's like a pull string doll on caffine saying the same thing over and over and over again!

I would rather listen to fingernails across a chalkboard in IMAX stereo sound. :mad:

Re: Rank The Announcers
 

wait a second...can somebody clarify the difference between an announcer and an MC?

The Announcer is the play-by-play person, and the MC is the person who introduces the team?

In that case i would have to say that einstein had the best mc, and curie had the best announcer.

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Sir Charles was a riot.

He gets my vote, if for no other reason than comic relief.

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Sir charles was great on Newton field i mean i only listened to him when my team was queued or playing but he had some classic lines and got everyone pumped sure i mean some liens were used to often but i still think he was aweosme

Re: Rank The Announcers
 

Sir Charles, who I heard had no experience with FIRST at all, knew only the terms "FIRST Frenzy" and "Raising the bar" at the beginning of Friday. He knew nothing of the game, repeated the same tired lines, and I was heavily annoyed within twenty seconds of hearing him.

By the finals on Saturday, he knew everything there was to know and was the greatest announcer for any sport I have ever heard in the history of my life. I led numerous cheers to show my appreciation for this exemplary and decidated enthusiast and was right there in the stands hugging him when Charles gave Sir Charles the aforementioned giant lifted squeeze.

Sir Charles, by becoming a lovely parody of himself and trying his very hardest on Friday to announce the game, then by Saturday proving his true worth as an announcer, and not just any announcer. He was capable of directing my attention on the field and had me screaming "It's over, baby! Let's get certified" after nearly every match.

"Welcome to the Georgia Dome, bay-bee. HELLO!" I can't speak of the other announcers, but Sir Charles was the greatest I have ever seen.

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The Curie announcer was extremely enthusiastic, which is VERY GOOD for FIRST.

He was, however, just a little bit hyper by a mile.

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Sir charles was so into it that when the newton alliance lost on einstien my mom said that she saw him EXTREMELY sad and agitated. He really did (for most people) connect with the crowd.

Re: Rank The Announcers
 

As the announcer on Currie I would like to add a little. Sir Charles as you call him, may have had little experience with FIRST but he had great heart. Before the event I challenged all Announcers and MC'S that Curie Field was going to be the #1 field in enthusiasm and competition. Charles was the most challenging of the group. I took 1 break and visited every field and brought the fact that the field that I was visiting was asleep. Charles got right on the mike to prove his field was energetic. I must admit that the field did respond well. Hedoes have a great presence and with more experience may become the 2nd best announcer that FIRST has. As you all know the # 1 announcer, The Voice of FIRST, is Blair.

I still believe that Curie IS #1. Except for the small point that we didn't win the Championship, it has yet to be proven that after 2 years with the #1 MC (Mark Leon) and I, that Curie is the most energetic and enthusiastic field at Championships.

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TOUCHE!!!! It was horrible. It took so much work to ignore him.

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Actually,

"Sir Charles" as you call him does have quite a bit of FIRST experience on one of the GM teams (can't remember which one). He just retired from GM here in Atlanta and was the announcer for Peachtree. I laugh evertime I read the quote like "They're going for the hookup baby!" He is very enthusiastic if anything :).

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All i can say is Dave V's enterance was awesome, i mean who else can pull off (no pun intended) the blues brothers enterance and still be taken serious!

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In Arizona Blair and Dan Green paired together to create one awesome combo of MC/Announcer. I still think Blaire is possibly one of the coolest people in FIRST.

As for the Newton field. Normally, I am not the type of person to love high-energy announcers at competitions, especially those doing play by play. I've always kind of liked them being as simple as possible. However, the announcer on Newton wowed me. If FIRST is trying to get more people in the stands at the competitions and therefore spread the word of FIRST, this guy will be a HUGE help in accomplishing these goals. Before every match, I got a little smile on my face because he announced "Team 234 Cyber Blue all the way from Indianapolis...what's up Nap-Town?!" I loved it...absolutely hilarious.

I had the pleasure of personally meeting Dave at FIRST HQ last year. He's a great guy and one of the best sources of Inspiration within FIRST. As far as an MC...he knows more about FIRST teams than any announcer I have ever heard in FIRST. It seemed like every match of the finals he knew more and more about each team. He's simply outstanding.

Re: Rank The Announcers
 

Mark Leon is awesome, both on and off the field.

Anyone who thinks otherwise can feel free to leave now :-D

Cory

Re: Rank The Announcers
 

As a midwester, I am absolutely partial to Dave Verbrugge and Dan Greene. Those guys just rock my socks. However, Blair, Ron, Mark, and the many others who contributed did a great job... I was blown away at everyone's ability to keep the crowds entertained and aware of what was going on. Here's a big round of applause... and we'll see you guys all back next year!

Re: Rank The Announcers
 

Which division, if any, had the NASA announcer from the Pacific Northwest regional?

Re: Rank The Announcers
 

Curie, and his name is Mark Leon.

Cory

Re: Rank The Announcers
 

He's awesome!

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I have to agree with SilverStar, Mark Leon was an awesome anouncer at the Pacific Northwest Regional!

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Who was the announcer from the MWR...he was awesome.

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Well, I love Blair. Only, all of his wonderful "bridesmaid" comments have doomed our team. haha. Anyway, when he and Don Knight paired up for Phoenix and Denver, they were making plans to keep working together.

From what I saw of Galileo, they did awesome. I really like them. They're great people, both on and off the field.

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MARK AND STEVE! MARK AND STEVE!

(For anyone who was watching Curie, we were the ones that always went up and banged on the plastic shielding with Mark when we were announced. And we had him wear our lab coat :D )

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I have worked with Dave Verbrugge., Steve Warren., and Dan Green and I watched Sir Charles at Newton. Please see my comments regarding Sir Charles in this post: Sir Charles

With regard to Dave Verbrugge (MC, not announcer): he is an awesome MC and a great person. He came up with the Blues brothers routine at Great Lakes this year and it was absolutely hilarious. The reason he is the most knowledgeable about teams is he does his homework. He has a notebook that contains all the information on every team at an event he is MCing. He also goes around to teams and asks questions to get himself prepared.

Steve Warren is a long time announcing veteran from Canada who sets the announcing standard for initiating crowd participation. I had the pleasure of being the MC at Detroit when we was the announcer and we had a blast. We did dual announcing during the eliminations and he was very funny. I look forward to working with him in the future.

Dan Green is also a very seasoned announcer and has done some MCing, too. He comes from the Blair school of announcing: announce standing up and keep moving .. don't sit down. His play by play is the FIRST standard and he was the example I used when preparing for Great Lakes.

I'm sure all of these guys were outstanding at the Championship and I thank them for volunteering their time.

-Paul

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I thought Dan did a nice job when he was announcing at Archimedes - awesome play-by-play and knowledge of the game. BUT... he appears to have picked up quirks in his communication style. Every once in a while he says things that just don't seem ... normal. I suppose its possible that he just has a more versatile vocabulary than me, but sometimes I can't keep up with his repartee.

I hope he sticks with it, though, cause he's pretty good.

:)

Ken

Re: Rank The Announcers
 

Well I actually kinda liked that... I just have respect for anyone willing to put themselves out there to try to get other people involved. I know firsthand how incredibly difficult that is.

Re: Rank The Announcers
 

As an announcer myself, I have always tried to follow the lead of those announcers who I really look up to. Blair and Ron are two of those announcers who I try to model my style after, and they did a great job at nats (eventhough Blair was an MC...which kinda threw me off, I felt he should have been announcing the finals, with all due respect to the Einstien Announcer). As for MC...Mark Leon is just amazing. Its difficult enough just walking around the field and trying to get a crowd going...this man brings so much enthusiasm and energy to the field, its a wonder why he doesn't drop in the middle of the floor. Great job guys!

-Andy Grady

Re: Rank The Announcers
 

From what I understand some of the volunteers working field reset were feeding him lines. I never really heard any of them because I only saw my team's matches, but D@ve (who volunteered on Archimedes field reset) told me afterwards that they were taking random lines out of newspaper articles and making other things up and giving them to Dan during the matches. I will have to rewatch some other matches to see just how quirky they were.

-Tom

Re: Rank The Announcers
 

You mean things like "The balls dropped like a bunch of lemmings. L-E-M-M-I-N-G-S."? You can blame his teammates for that one, we were giving him a hard time about it the night before :cool:

For those not aware, there's a little game going on when Dan announces whereby someone passes him slips of papers with strange words on it that he's required to work into the play-by-play. It certainly makes for some strange comments. My favorite at MWR had something to with Beatty and being "all over them like cheap cologne!"

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The Galileo announcer was extremely confused, even more confused than I thought now that I watched the Galileo eliminations on Soap. First he called us East Hartford, then South Windsor, then he said something like "South Windsor battling UTC" which are both references to our team. Later, he said "Here come the Aztechs!", which I believe was referring to us.
:confused:

Re: Rank The Announcers
 

This all started with Blair. The field crew has been doing this with him for years. I had the pleasure of being head ref while he was announcer in Portland, and we would feed him lines. I would be sitting in front of him, reffing the match, and he would give out the "phrase" as it would fit in to the situation. He would say a phrase, and we would all crack up while trying to keep our "game faces" on.

One time, he had to say "pork products". It took him 4-5 matches, but a robot fell over and he responded with "oooh, (team name) is laying on the floor like a bunch of pork products" - or something like that. It would've been a qualifying match on Friday, if I remember.

So... I conveyed this idea to Dan and challenged him to do the same. He was up for the challenge in Chicago at the Midwest Regional and it snowballed from there. We would pass notes to him in Chicago, and everyone got a good kick out of it.

Just remember... it all started with Blair. Blair IS the man.

Andy B.

Re: Rank The Announcers
 

Is that what the whole purple balls looking like asparagus thing was at MWR? i got a kick out of that.

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A few of the things that dan successfully integrated into his announcing matches...

"where's my dippin' dots?"
"goats do roam in villages"
"lemmings L-E-M-M-I-N-G-S"
"I am JVN"
"Yeah, kindergarten was hard"

There are many more, but those are the ones i remember :)

I think the best one was the JVN one-- the way he phrased it was incredible -- "That robot is almost on the bar! They are saying, 'We WILL hang! We WILL get on the bar! I AM JVN!"

Anyone else who was there feel free to add! What an incredible weekend!

Tom

Re: Rank The Announcers
 

Okay,
I've heard about this one from a few people (Thanks Dan ;)) and I'm just wondering if anyone knows what match it's in. I want to check it out for myself.

I guess I'll offer a Dew to whoever posts the SOAP link with this in it.

John

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Ah, I did not know that. Thanks for the update! And here I thought it was an original idea....

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I missed the "I AM JVN" one but I heard the following from Dan:

lemmings l-e-m-m-i-n-g-s
top cheese
rolling around like fuzzy dice
stand-up hovercraft
sedemihcra

I hope to continue to enchance my vocabulary by listening to the great announcers of FIRST!

Ken