[Karibou]

Somebody else already broke down how they use different terminology in different forms of speech, and upon thinking about this yesterday during hashtag determination on Twitter, I realized that I'm the same way.

If I'm talking to somebody in FIRST...
Verbal: I just call it "Atlanta." For the next several years, it's going to be "St. Louis." Since everyone (or almost everyone - I can't always assume...) in FIRST knows what happens in Atlanta, no more descriptive terminology is really needed. As has been pointed out, "the championship" is a bit awkward to say sometimes, especially if you're like me and tend to talk 500 miles an hour, and therefore stumble over words a lot.

Some-form-of-text-communication: Depending on how rushed/relaxed I'm typing, what the situation is, and who I'm talking to, I switch between "Atlanta," "ATL/atl," "CMP/cmp/champs," and "the championship." Again, not much more description is needed: almost everyone knows what goes down in Atlanta mid-April.

However, if I'm talking to somebody outside of FIRST...

Some-form-of-text-communication: It's "the championship" or "the international championship" or "the world championship (event)" + "in Atlanta." And then an elaboration about how large of an event it is, the FLL and FTC events, and usually "teams from AROUND THE WORLD come to compete" somewhere in there too.

Verbal: This is where I sometimes slip and say "national championship." I don't even know where my use of "national(s)" came from - nobody on my team uses the term, and I don't talk to the ancients enough to have picked up on the term that way. Nevertheless, I almost ALWAYS awkwardly correct myself. "...at the national championship event - err, international championship event; there are MANY teams from around the world that compete there along with teams from the US" is normally how it goes. I have huge amounts of respect for the international teams, and mean them absolutely no disrespect by accidentally slipping and saying "national" - I've tried putting myself in their shoes, and am always incredulous at how different and difficult it must be to compete against one nation's memory-foam wall of pride. I'm sure that nobody uses "nationals" as a term of disrespect, but it's like calling someone with a freshly-earned doctorate degree "Mr./Mrs. Smith" instead of "Dr. Smith." New names and new changes take some time to get used to, and that period of time is different for every individual.