During the awards ceremony, giving a standing ovation for the team receiving the award is a courteous thing to do. You are showing your respect for the team receiving the award. Even if you don't personally know that team (among 341 different teams), the judges choose to recognize them for their efforts and they should be worthy of your respect. We all know how much effort is required just to compete in FIRST and that alone is worthy of a standing ovation in my book.
Having said that, it is not disrespectful to stay in your seat and remain silent during the award presentation. That is your personal choice. Not everyone on my team chooses to stand and cheer, but I'd say over 90% does. If you are going to choose to sit down I don't understand why you are complaining that you can't see. What is there to see? Two people from the team walk down to the stage and get handed a plastic trophy. There is nothing visually spectacular about that (except for the Chairman’s fireworks). What is spectacular about that is the feeling that team gets while accepting an award in front of a stadium full of cheering peers. How can you care so much about seeing this visually unimpressive award presentation that you become irritated when your view is obstructed, but not care enough about it to stand up and join in the cheering? You can't have it both ways.
Matches are a different story. It is important that everyone be able to see the field during matches. There are many people (spectators and scouts) that need to see a match, but don't have a rooting interest. Please sit down after the team interdictions. After the match is dead time. The DJ pumps in dance music, because they want you to standup and dance to fill the dead time.
Another thing that I have yet to see anyone address is moving through the stands during matches.
Please wait till the current match is over before moving in or out of the stands. I am guilty of this myself. When you are rushing back to the pits (or somewhere else), it is very easy to forget that everyone else is watching the match and you are walking in front of them. If we make a conscious effort we can stop ourselves from doing this. Matches are only 2 min and 15 sec long and can be quite entertaining if you sit down and watch them before leaving.
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Originally Posted by EOC
I observed your team at the championship with a certain degree of envy as our team sat in the stands with little enthusiasm. Your team spirit seemed genuine and unrehearsed; everyone was enjoying themselves. You provided a great role model for other teams.
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It is genuine. We cheer like crazy whenever do something successful in the workshop. However, the MOE cheer is rehearsed. We teach that to the rookies in thier first week. I've probably done the MOE cheer a thousand or so times in my five years. It is second nature. Also, we ocassionally have Cha Cha slide breaks during the build season.
