Gracious Professionalism VS Competition

[StevenB]

My short answer to the question posed is this: No, you shouldn't score a tube for your opponent out of "Gracious Professionalism". That's about like a football team giving their opponents the ball back after a fumble. Personally, that would be an insult.

That said, I think its misguided to consider GP and competition as dueling ideals. Don't forget the second half of GP: Professionalism. Professionalism means we work our hardest, we play our fairest, and think our fastest. We play to win. But although the object of the game is to win, the object of FIRST as a whole has nothing to do with winning: it's about the inspiration and recognition of science and technology.

As others have well said, "Compete with all you've got in front of the curtain, cooperate with all you've got behind it."