Alliance Partner Gifts/Giveaways

[MechEng83]

Just wondering if/what teams give away as a thank you to their alliance partners when your competition is over.

I don't think we've been consistent. In the past, we have given a team shirt, team-branded popcorn, team swag, and sometimes nothing aside from a verbal thank you because we didn't plan well.

We have received things like team shirts, a personalized thank you note signed by the drive team and pit crew, alliance buttons (made on the spot), and also nothing.

What do YOU do for your alliance partners as a thank you? What kind of gifts do you think would be cool/appropriate?

[Chowmaster4695]

We usually give out the CAD file of our robots on a CD.

[Shrub]

Alliance buttons sound really cool. I don't think we have given our alliance partners gifts this year (besides dancing around and copious amounts of thanks for picking us!!!). If I could steal your idea for a sec, what did the alliance buttons even look like? :0

[Tom Ore]

Originally Posted by Shrub

Alliance buttons sound really cool. I don't think we have given our alliance partners gifts this year (besides dancing around and copious amounts of thanks for picking us!!!). If I could steal your idea for a sec, what did the alliance buttons even look like? :0

This is typical of the alliance buttons we give out. We make them over lunch and hand them out during eliminations.

[Shrub]

That's so cool!! Yet another reason our team needs a button machine. Thank you!

[JeremyLansing]

By far the coolest alliance gift/give away I have received is a hat from 2056 they gave members of their partner's drive teams at World Championships in 2013. I'm not sure if that is something they do regularly, but that is by far my favorite piece of FIRST memorabilia, and something I will cherish for a long time. I also remember our team receiving some excellent chocolate macadamia nuts from Team 359 at IRI last year, and on Team 171 we have talked about giving out cheese curds to our partner's drive teams.

[ThunderousPrime]

One thing I like to do for my team's elimination partners is to do a button swap with out partners. Attached is a picture of the buttons of all the elim alliance partners 1511's been this year except at champs. (Champs was chaotic and I forgot to try to get them.)

Also With regard to alliance buttons and logos I put together a gallery of the 2013 World Champion Sticker which combines all three logos. It's pretty cool to check out.

Also as a spirit activity we like to create an "alliance name" for the MC to announce before elimination matches. At Finger Lakes the alliance name was "Rolling TanX of Wrath" (1511 Rolling Thunder, 3003 TanX, pronounced tanksm and 1551 Grapes of Wrath) and at Beantown Blitz the alliance name was "Red Thunder Hawks." (4048 RedShift, 1100 T-Hawks and 1511 Rolling Thunder)

[pntbll1313]

To jump on to the 525 bandwagon the buttons they gave to us 2 years ago were amazing. I swear we picked them, and 3 minutes later they handed our entire drive team a button. It was so cool truly a professional team.

[Nathan Rossi]

Our team gives away buttons and strips of CAUTION tape throughout the course of the tournament. But, when you get partnered up with us, you gain a seemingly unlimited amount of CAUTION tape to deck yourself out with. Who doesn't want that?

[wesbass23]

Certain teams (254, 2056, etc) give blue banners to their alliance partners.

[JohnFogarty]

Originally Posted by wesbass23

Certain teams (254, 2056, etc) give blue banners to their alliance partners.

Ba Dum Tis.

[Alpha Beta]

Originally Posted by wesbass23

Certain teams (254, 2056, etc) give blue banners to their alliance partners.

And I was starting to feel bad about not giving away special stuff.

One of my favorite memories is working with 624 in Denver 2011. They give their alliance partners green hair and temporary use of their capes. Very fun.

I can also attest to the 525 buttons. It was almost magical how fast they showed up in Central Illinois this year after alliance selections.

[Jon Stratis]

Probably the best gift we've gotten from an alliance partner was a keyboard. The team was QWERTY (3278), and they swapped out the keys to spell out the team names and numbers for the entire alliance, one per row. Totally awesome!

[Kimmeh]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

Probably the best gift we've gotten from an alliance partner was a keyboard. The team was QWERTY (3278), and they swapped out the keys to spell out the team names and numbers for the entire alliance, one per row. Totally awesome!

Makes one wonder just how many keys they have floating around...

[DevBal5012]

This year at world's, since our team is harry potter themed, we gave out little golden snitches that had ribbons inside saying "Thanks for being our alliance partner. ~5012" and the teams seamed really excited when they got theirs.