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Originally Posted by aepstein
Also, at what point does gracious professionalism turn into cut throat competition?"
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This can occur any time when one party is willing to do what may not be gracious or even professional for the victory or a specific goal.
This transformation to "cut throat" can occur before, during and after a match and can be influenced / caused by many internal and external forces. External ones range from: drive teams comments and actions, drive coaches own or otherwise, actions of referees and even the crowd cheering at an UnGP action resulting in a toppling of a robot.
Many things cause it, mostly from the heat of the moment, some however are caused by a team upbringing. For some teams a loss doesn't just mean a lack of a shiny new trophee, but also placing their sponsorship in jeopardy. That doesn't justify their actions, but it should be taken into consideration.
As a member of a drive team I know what it is like when the competition turns sour, I have gotten upset about the outcome of a match, have gone into a match angry about what opposing drive teams have said or done, along with many events where I have been on the recieving as well as the giving end. I'm not proud of it, but I recognize it happens, to everyone.
There is also a major difference in playing ones best and being in it just to win.
FIRST at its base is a competition and while its intention isn't to create winners and losers, that is an end effect. At the end of the day, there is a set of teams that won but a much larger set of teams that did not.