We have our students try to come up with creative awards that combine our team, TORC and the game, and come up with peer awards that can be spread around. The best defense, the best offence, they will earn their awards from FIRST. Yes they should be gracious, but we are still talking high school students, so I am not surprised at your experiences.
I think this is similar to BigJ approach.
Most time we hand out our pit awards on Saturday, and we do it in the pits, most times the drive coaches and drivers are not around, so that takes some of the "pick me" tarnish off of them.
Here are the awards we came up with last year, and the teams that won them at our second event at Waterford.
Torque from TORC Award--for holding your ground against other bots
Team 1718The Fighting Pi, Armada
Shooting the Moon Award--for having the highest shooting altitude
Team 2612 Corsairs, Waterford
Frequent Flyer Award--for having yours balls always flying
Team 4998 TESLA, Flint
No Smelly Pits Award--for having the best pits
Team 1 The Juggernauts, Pontiac
Altitude Attitude Award--for showing spirit and staying true to your team
Team 3098 The Captains, Waterford
Taming Award--for taming your opponent most of the time
Team 302 The Lake Orion Dragons, Lake Orion
Mountain Climbing Award--for raising from a low rank on Day 1 to a high rank on the next
Team 3707 Brighton Bug, Brighton
Are You Sure You're a Rookie? Award--for the best rookie team
Team 5084 FridgeBot Caveliers, Corunna
TORC Award--for The Outrageous Robot Creativity
Team 3538 RoboJackets, Auburn Hills
In my experience, the only way to have a legendary team take notice of you, is to beat them.
