[EricH]

Here are some of my thoughts. There might be more later.

It is possible to separate the two halves of Gracious Professionalism. However, if you do it, you can get some interesting situations. For example, too much Gracious can result in running matches 7 hours after the event is supposed to be over because two teams can't connect to the field fast enough every single round. Overemphasis on Professionalism means those teams get zero matches due to connecting 120 seconds+ late in any given match (and thereby not being allowed to compete), but the event runs on time.

By linking the two into one phrase, the meaning is charged towards balancing the two. In the above example, it's giving the team a little extra time to try to connect, and assigning someone to find their issue whenever they aren't on the field. Trying to get them onto the field every match, with a fast enough connection time that they don't get left out.

GP is not something that should be used as an accusatory tool. Too many people have tried to do this in the past few years. Rich Kressly said it best: "Only think of Gracious Professionalism as a standard to work toward personally. Never use it as a gauge to point out someone else’s shortcomings."

While using GP to point out shortcomings may be professional (which is debatable), it certainly isn't gracious. This is where the opposite of GP, also known as asinine incompetence, comes in. Also separable, "ai" implies that not only do you not have a clue what you're doing, but you also are rude and/or crude while you're doing it. Nobody wants to have that tag applied to them; this is why I do my best not to apply it.

Cries of "GP! GP!" aren't heard as often because Gracious Professionalism is common--maybe too common. Teams and individuals have to do something extraordinary to have it be talked about. On the other hand, the cry of "un-GP" arises when someone thinks--not necessarily knows--that someone else is not being "GP", whatever "GP" means to whoever happens to be complaining. When there's a lot of unrecognized GP going around, the rare "un-GP" call gets a lot of sudden attention.