Alliance Invitation Phrase

[ErvinI]

Funny how many people mentioned that sponsors should not be mentioned. Something that I noticed was that Canadian teams almost always mention their sponsors in alliance selections. Looking back at Waterloo 2012 selections (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4CkGuJaEQU), 14 out of the first 17 teams invited to an alliance mentioned their sponsors. One of the declines was an American team while another was a rookie team. I stopped counting after the 1st round was over.

Must be a Canadian thing...

[Navid Shafa]

Originally Posted by ErvinI

Must be a Canadian thing...

I certainly think so.

Saturday was crazy at GTR West this year and I was hyped for alliance selections. It kind of killed the mood though when each team spent 5+ minutes listing sponsors. I can respect the formality/professionalism and I realize it's up to the teams, but it's painful to watch...

[xXhunter47Xx]

"Team #### accepts, and together, we shall rule the galaxy"

[ghostmachine360]

Our alliance invitation phrase from Palmetto:

"On behalf of the Hype Train, The Magic School Bus, and Dairy Queen, Team 1648 accepts."

Better things in store for Peachtree.

[Wayne Doenges]

This year our Alliance picker said "Team 1501, to Assist in our Aerial endeavor, would like to invite Team XXXX"
I cringe everytime someone says "Graciously Accepts"

[BigJack]

It's cheesy, but I always loved when teams make some pun off their name. I know The Foley Freeze asks people to "come chill with them" and I'm pretty sure Bedford Express makes some kind of "on track" pun, but I might be mistaken.

[Billfred]

4901's acceptance from Orlando:

"Much gracious. Very accept. Wow."

Every time he's said it, we've won the tournament. Coincidence?

(Whaddya mean 1 event of saying it is a poor sample size?!)

[xXhunter47Xx]

"We invite Team #### to be on our alliance. They're already chosen? I must have done my math wrong, give me a minute."
*draws a picture of a cat*
"After carrying the one and dividing by two instead of dividing by two and then carrying the one, we invite Team #### to our alliance instead"

[maths222]

I'm just curious: What's the big problem with "Team XXXX graciously accepts." The FTC Emcee script includes this paragraph:

As a Team representative comes up to accept or decline, make sure they speak into the microphone so the audience can hear. The appropriate response should be: “On behalf of Team#, we graciously accept (or decline) your invitation.”

[Ether]

Originally Posted by maths222

I'm just curious: What's the big problem with "Team XXXX graciously accepts."

Gratefully accepts.

Graciously declines.

[brandon.cottrell]

Originally Posted by Ether

Gratefully accepts.

Graciously declines.

This is the most important post in the entire thread.

[Libby K]

I'll always stick to 'gratefully accepts', and 'respectfully declines'.

However, this leads me to a little bit of a tangent.

If another alliance captain declines, that is their right. Don't boo.
Seriously. I've seen this happen so many times!
"Team XXX declines" booOOOOOOooOOOOOO.
They're well within their rights to form their own alliance if they so choose.

Back to the original point - If a team wants to do something fun, that's all fine and good - just keep it short. Just like recognizing key sponsors instead of all of them, not everyone wants to hear your two-page poem when a simple one-liner would do.

Keep it simple and to-the-point, and you'll probably be fine.

Originally Posted by Libby K

If another alliance captain declines, that is their right. Don't boo.

So much this. People need to understand a declination isn't always personal. I've even seen teams boo when a non-alliance captain team declines due to a broken robot. Not only is it incredibly rude, but it also makes FIRST look bad as an organization.

[CLandrum3081]

Originally Posted by Libby K

If another alliance captain declines, that is their right. Don't boo.
Seriously. I've seen this happen so many times!
"Team XXX declines" booOOOOOOooOOOOOO.
They're well within their rights to form their own alliance if they so choose.

Danke.

We've never been in the position to decline (and are typically more confident in the selector's alliance-forming abilities than ours), but it's so frustrating when the boos happen.

I've never seen any reason to boo at an FRC event. This is only my third year, though, so maybe there has been an acceptable reason in the past, but I would be seriously worried if there was...

Anyway, we've never really done anything that crazy. Maybe we will at our next regional, though.

[P.J.]

Originally Posted by BigJack

It's cheesy, but I always loved when teams make some pun off their name. I know The Foley Freeze asks people to "come chill with them" and I'm pretty sure Bedford Express makes some kind of "on track" pun, but I might be mistaken.

Yep, 910 uses "We would love to chill with you" or "We would like to invite XXXX to come chill with us."

We haven't declined an alliance in recent memory, but our go to phrase is "Unfortunately, team 910 The Foley Freeze is going to have to give you the cold shoulder this time." We've had a few debates about this, as some people think that this could come off as non-graciously professional, so we don't know if we would use it in practice.

But we have a new phrase for accepting an offer, so hopefully we'll get to use it before the season is over. And it's even more cheesy and punny