spirit award
 

i was wondering if any knew if it would be legal to use air horns when trying to win the award or if we can use any at all?

Re: spirit award
 

Check the rule book from last year. This kind of rule might not change from year to year, but it is still good to check. I believe the rule is no live bands and/or no musical instruments. Make sure to check though.

Re: spirit award
 

I seem to recall that noisemakers (such as airhorns) are not allowed. Section 3, At the Events, Game Manual, 2008. (Similar rules have been in place for years. Don't expect a change.)

[EDIT] After getting some time, a look at the manual reveals:
Air horns count. Later:

Re: spirit award
 

Yea, those weren't allowed but there are alternatives. My team #675 used thundersticks that everyone heard and got annoyed with by the end of the competition. Haha

Re: spirit award
 

Real spirit doesn't need a noisemaker...

Re: spirit award
 

Agreed with the above, but also, even if they are not forbidden in the rule book make sure you check with the venue. Some places forbid them.

ALSO, please please please, I beg you, no air horns. Even if they are allowed, some of us already are miserable at the amount of noise at a competition. Team spirit is not always the loudest team there, I know that RUSH recieved the award because all of our students had a passion (more like obsession) with the team and we really were more like a large family. Nothing to do with cheering or noise.

Re: spirit award
 

Legal or not, I think air horns would be counterproductive. Based on my experience, you'd almost certainly annoy the judges. At best, you'd be drowning out any evidence of spirit among your teammates.

For the sake of the ears around you, leave air horns at home.

Re: spirit award
 

3.15.3 Competition Spirit
We ask that you choose to bring attention to your team in ways that are in good taste and in the
spirit of the competition. Please refrain from the following:
•Using obnoxious noisemakers.
•Using objects that can damage bleachers or floors.
•Wearing inappropriate clothing.
•Taping or affixing items or papers to walls, bleachers, floors, or other site areas.
Please make sure your Pit Station and surrounding area is clean when you leave the site.

Above is the text from the 2008 game manual. Bullet points 1 and 4 are probably broken at most regionals. A good idea for bullet point 1 is to try your noisemaking device out in a gym with some team parents there. If they are not annoyed after 5 minutes or so you should be fine.

Re: spirit award
 

It's a good bet that the other teams will quickly become pretty annoyed with your team in no time flat.Banging sticks are the limit of their tolerance. Alarming loud noisemakers probably crosses a line by a significant amount.
Hearing loss tends to kill off the gracious professionalism in them.
Just try creative cheers, dancing, screaming, passing out buttons and giveaways, and spreading the word of FIRST to your team and others at the event. That usually gets the trick done.

Re: spirit award
 

There's a limit to those, too. I seem to recall that the MOE Sticks were specifically banned at one point. Thundersticks, on the other hand, have been in the KOP for a couple years...

Re: spirit award
 

It's my opinion that the Spirit award has to do with how the team comports itself on the field, off the field, in the stands, in the pits, in the venue area, in the hotels. Everywhere.

The cheers and fun the teams have in the stands are a celebration of their season together and the culmination of a team-building experience in getting the robot and the team to competition. That's one reason I enjoy the Rookie All-Star award so much. It reflects that beautifully.

Re: spirit award
 

Take it from a team that knows. :D Banging sticks (especially lime green and black striped ones) is definitely not encouraged.

Re: spirit award
 

Yeah, we had them too.

Re: spirit award
 

As I recall you had quite a bit of competition as well ^_^
I, personally, don't think "thundersticks" are annoying, though. They're not "loud" like air horns are; they're "loud" in the sense that applause is loud, which is not a bad thing. They require the participation of the whole team, and thus show legitimate team spirit (as opposed to pressing the button on an air horn); and they're also common at professional sports, and I don't think fans there complain.

Re: spirit award
 

I beg you....no whistles either. I was at a LEGO competition once where the team sitting next to us blew them constantly and couldn't hear for a few days afterward

Re: spirit award
 

I'm going with you on this...nobody needs noisemakers to win a Spirit Award..its cheering for your team when u win or lose, cheering for a rookie team that does well or bad that day, cheering for a team whose prospects were looking down one day but worked hard to compete again, your opposing alliance...anything that shows true character is spirit...not noisemakers (except your lungs of course:] )


Make your team realize why they're there..to have fun no matter what's going on down on the field. They need the mindset that every team competing is having its ups and downs and that they all need support. Support a small team who doesn't have a large cheering section perhaps. It all shows through the true character of your team and not by how loud you are.

Re: spirit award
 

Also "not encouraged" ...30 foot pit towers with blinking lights and digital displays. Oh well. Safety beats spirit just about every time.

Re: spirit award
 

A better choice would be to carefully read what the spirit award is about, and use that to plan your strategy. Team 1676 was pleasantly surprised last year when we won it in Toronto. I feel that our relentless offers of assistance (real offers, too, not just lip service) to all other teams helped. We sent squads around looking for people to be helped, we responded to every request announced by pit admin (when we had what they needed) and walked fast (no running!) to get the item to the other team. That and just being friendly, and cheering everyone (not just 1676) probably helped too.

Re: spirit award
 

My crotchety old person opinion is that it should be illegal to try to win the award. Do things because you like doing them or because it helps others. Don't do things to win awards.

Re: spirit award
 

I agree. Even though the awards are very good motivators to try and excel in all aspects of FIRST, many participants realize after the first event or two that having fun and winning awards are mutually exclusive. Success shouldn't be measured by how full your trophy case is; it's about having an amazing experience which you can keep with yourself forever.

Re: spirit award
 

Not quite mutually exclusive... You can have fun without winning an award, but if you get an award (especially if you didn't try for it), you have even more fun!:D

Re: spirit award
 

Oh, definitely true. Perhaps fun and winning awards shouldn't always have to go hand in hand, but both can certainly be a great way to end a competition!

Re: spirit award
 

While I personally agree with you sponsors like awards, students like awards. But, teams can often focus on something because they feel passionate about it and end up winning an award for it. I think this is a good thing.

As a joke, we all like awards cuz they are shiny and who doesn't like shiny?

Re: spirit award
 

To concur with this (I think: I haven't seen any 30 foot towers in the pits. Maybe 3 foot ones?) -- One year the team opposite us in the pit had a couple of those blinky safety cones, the ones with the flashy red lights, sitting in the front corners of their pit. Which, when sitting at our programming laptop, would blink-blink-blink right above the laptop screen. Very distracting, and I'm not sure very safe either.

Re: spirit award
 

I agree with the above posters that the team spirit award is about more than who has the most people/makes the most noise in the stands. When 558 won the award at the CT regional in 2007, it was to recognize the extraordinary efforts that the urban team members had to undergo just to be a part of the team, like walking and biking to meetings in all kinds of weather, as well as their willingness to help other teams.

Re: spirit award
 

I believe at least one team at SVR used PVC pipes to "claim" all the 3-dimensional space they were allowed... but a 30-foot tower? Has anyone seriously done this?

Re: spirit award
 

I got a safety token for sweeping out our pit when the robot left. It's nice to get small recognition like that for something that needed done anyway. Y'know, if they gave those out at work I might clean my desk more often!

I'm still wondering about that 30 foot tower with blinky lights. Maybe they were landing airplanes? I suppose in the "old days" it was possible there was one, but in the past couple of years isn't there a rule of nothing over 10 feet?

Re: spirit award
 

MOE 365 had a 20 foot tower a few years before the 10 foot tower rule was put into place. I know a few other teams had towers over 10 feet at that time, too.

Re: spirit award
 

Here is a pic from 2004 of MOE's 20 ft tower before it got downsized. It sure made it easy to find them in the pits!

Re: spirit award
 

Yeah because the bright green make you SO hard to find.

And you know, in 2007 RUSH was called many things, one of those was an aircraft carrier, something about a ramp the size of a truck bed. And based on the number of teams who didnt manage to get up it (9 degree incline) we coulda used some lights to guide them.

Re: spirit award
 

I saw this quote at the top of the page and found it interesting because... well, I was captain of Everything Else on my team (as opposed to Bot and Build).

When I was in high school, I remember the award itself, not what we could learn from it, being the motivation to win an award. Our team was pretty new at the time, so we hadn't quite grasped the value of FRC and there was no one to point it out to us. It was only after we won our first few awards that we realized their real importance. It wasn't about the award! Duh! (Hmm... "It's not about the bot" sound familiar?)

My point is that an award acts as an initial incentive. It's a great way to get students started on the right paths, even if they focus on the goal instead of the means. They figure it out eventually. It's similar to how the competitions feel like a reward for all the hard work - but also teach Gracious Professionalism, among other things.

Re: spirit award
 

Our team, team 1675, was enthused to find that we won the award in chicago. We cheered for our teams, cheered for the judges, and just showed support for everyone. We also made a big commotion when handing out awards in the pits.

EDIT: But we weren't expecting it at all. We only realized we won it when they mentions our enthusiasm for everything.

Re: spirit award
 

What you all are describing, seems different then my experience with the spirit award.
Last year my team was definitely one of the most spirited groups at our regional. We were eliminated early on, and decided that if we couldn't cheer for ourselves, we would cheer for EVERYONE else.
My team even started what is believed to be, the longest conga line in FIRST history.
But the spirit award was given to a team that showed spirit outside of competition by doing presentations for some local schools.
So the spirit award is not always given out to teams because of what they do during competition. At least not at our regional anyway...

Re: spirit award
 

Really it depends on the judges. The award criteria is worded broadly enough that it could be anything from overcoming all odds and competing to a team that is really close.

At no point does it say these things have to take place at the event. Just some food for thought.

Re: spirit award
 

I don't think it would be allowed.

Re: spirit award
 

What don't you think what would be allowed?

Re: spirit award
 

Thats pretty much what I was trying to point out...