Re: On "graciously" accepting
 

I tried to change things up a bit by saying "team 177 would be honored to accept" and then I thought to myself "wait a minute, was that correct grammar?"

Re: On "graciously" accepting
 

I have to agree with Beth on this, I've seen way too many teens giggle when they're nervous or make a mistake when speaking.

None of us can foresee in advance how the competition will progress, and I'm sure they thought they were doing the right thing at the time. I think all eight alliances were pretty strong and the matches were great contests. In my opinion, if 70 had accepted your invitation, the audience would have been the loser. The matches we saw were much more exciting than watching you blow everyone away. :)

Re: On "graciously" accepting
 

I changed it up, instead of saying "we graciously accept", I said
"Thank goodness" and hugged the alliance captain :)

Re: On "graciously" accepting
 

Here was our speach we had prepared. Too bad we didn't get to use it.

"Team 696 acknowledges this invitation to play in the elimination rounds which has been honorably bestowed upon us by team XXX on this oh so beautiful Saturday morning at this 2006 Southern California FIRST Robotics Regional competition being held here in the Great Western Forum in lovely Inglewood, California and we gatefully and wholeheartedly accept."

Asleep yet? LOL

Re: On "graciously" accepting
 

I like how the Red Barons accepted at GTR "how can we not! WE accept!"

Re: On "graciously" accepting
 

HAHA! i remember that! alliance #3 group hug! and i thought i was being creative...lol

Re: On "graciously" accepting
 

One of the best acceptances was at Boston when Team 233 accepted Team 121's invitation with "I think we're gonna join your little robot party." Someone at Philly also accepted with 'gracially.'

I'd really love to see some variation beyond 'graciously" and "respectfully" and "would be honored to" in the acceptance's. A lot of the things Pete(Dzdconfusd) posted are good acceptances, and I hope I see some of them used eventually.

Re: On "graciously" accepting
 

Teams 70 & 494 may have been looking to "re-join" the twins for the finals, or, maybe they just wanted the opportunity to lead their own alliances. There is nothing wrong with that choice. Either way, it was probably a very awkward situation for the students on the field from all of the teams involved. Unless someone from one of those teams wants to post their reasons, we should not speculate.

Teams in the Top 8 have earned the right to choose their partners and probably have scouting data to help them determine what they think a strong combination will be. The decision to deny an invitation should not be taken as a bad move, but simply a team exercising their choice of how to continue into the tournament.

Re: On "graciously" accepting
 

I don't think the problem here is with the fact that she declined. If we are going to pick on the semantics of graciously accepting (I believe the point being made is that once you say you are gracious, you aren't any more?) then you have got to see a problem with "graciously denying" someone. I think that respectfully declining is the only way to go on that one. No one argues with a person's right to decline, but if you are going to I think you should always consider the weight of that choice.

Re: On "graciously" accepting
 

If we’re going to pick on the incertitude of a young lady from Goodrich, Michigan (which happens to be the home of two of the most spectacular, giving, and gracious teams in all of FIRST) then this thread has hit rock bottom and should be put in the place where nit-picking topics deserve to end up.

Re: On "graciously" accepting
 

Thank you very much for the support Jack, my team and I really appreciate it. As for the comment "Graciously Denies", it was a total mistake. The person that said this happens to be one of my classmates, I know that the comment wasn't intended to hurt, upset, or offend anyone. Believe me my team felt very uneasy about having to decline 808's offer twice, it wasn't an easy call. But, declining a teams offer is part of the game and its strategy so we were not wrong in any way by doing so.

Re: On "graciously" accepting
 

As a Team 70 mentor, I too felt bad about putting Team 808's captain in such an awkward position, our sincere apologies if anyone was offended. It was not our intention to do so. The young lady, our Team 70 captain was very nervous and did not want to have to go out in front of the "world" and do this. This has been discussed by our Team Leadership and in the future we will discuss issues like this with any team PRIOR to the alliance picks. This will avoid any embarrassment and misunderstandings of the situation. Let's move on.

Re: On "graciously" accepting
 

Ooo nice one. I think I'll ask our captain to do something like that at our next regional.

"Team XXXX respectfully decl...ares HELL YES!"

Re: On "graciously" accepting
 

I wish my team would let me do half of this. The "graciously accepts" thing is a little annoying. When FIRST is so much about innovation and creativity, the selection process seems so regimented and traditionalized to the point of stiffness.

Re: On "graciously" accepting
 

i know right