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I've only been involved with FIRST for three years but I don't think there's been a loss of gracious professionalism. There's a lot of pressure and sometimes people don't handle it well, but given the circumstances, every team I met was kind, friendly and helpful. "Gracious Professionalism" is so common that we assume that every team will behave brilliantly and we only really notice when they don't. (Last year a couple of guys from another team just walked into our pit and started using our drill press because they assumed, correctly, that everyone would go out of their way to help another team) The only time at UTC-New England (2003) that I encountered
"un-FIRST-like" behavior was when we were paired with another high-seeded team against a weaker alliance. The mentor of that team decided to announce to the drive teams that this would be a "crapshoot" and that we had nothing to lose, privately, I told him that this could be a dangerous attitude, and he responded by telling me to "let the professionals handle this." He seemed like a nice guy under a lot of pressure so I didn't take it personally. Sometimes some of the mentors need to be reminded that its only a game, but in general I think "gracious professionalism" is alive and well.
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