[moderated] Sportsmanship!

[Tyler Olds]

Okay folks...........

Watching the Portland regional finals really set me over the edge, and I have been hearing of other occasions of poor sportsmanship.

First off, at the Portland Regional.........

Booing the referee's decision....... especially when it’s ANDY BAKER!!! I mean for Christ sake people, don't you know what a god he is (and the decision was the right call weather you think so or not)?!?!?!?!!?

The referees are doing the best job that they can do. They volunteer their time for us! So please quit complaining

Just remember that when you have poor sportsmanship, or have no gracious professionalism, you are making your self look bad, your team bad, your sponsors look bad, and FIRST looks bad!!!!

There has been other bad sportsmanship that I have been hearing about at the regionals, and I am very disappointed. This is FIRST people; you are supposed to have fun!!! I know what it is like to be DQ'd in the finals but there is no reason to be stupid and not act mature over it. It happened, get over it.

Please help celebrate the idea of gracious professionalism and let’s have a great year people!

My 2.3453 cents.............

[Ryan Dognaux]

Agreed. Just because the refs make a call that you don't like doesn't mean it's not justified. Refs 9/10 times are making great calls and doing the right thing, and please remember Referees are volunteers, so don't boo them or maybe they won't want to come back.

Show some respect.

[Joe Matt]

You mean Andy was the ref?!?! COOL! Anyway...

Yeah, guys, that's just bad. Thank god we didn't have that here, even with all of our new teams who don't have Gracious Professionalism under their belt yet. And this is comming from a team that won the sportsmanship award at VCU!

That's my 3.84 cents in the topic.

[Ryan Albright]

That is horrible, and i know from a referee standpoint its bad to. People lets remeber the refs are volunteers they are not getting paid for this job. When i referee hockey i get booed all the time but i expect it, and the benifit i get out of it is i get a pay check. The people up on the field are doing this to help us, they are getting no benfit out of it except for maybe seeing the engineering or the students faces when they do good. But, there should be none of that at FIRST comp cause this is a friendly competiton, its not like a hockey game were you expected to get booood. If you think you have a unfair call, take it like a man wipe it off and worry about your next match

[Stephen Kowski]

it was a good call i saw the match....the decision did not change the outcome of the match....plain and simple bad move on the part of the portland attendees that participated in the booing

[AmyRose]

I thought the same thing, the same call had been made many time at VCU and it was clearly stated..It hardly seemed like a FIRST event for that few seconds.
I agree they had some frustrations to work out with a lot of things messing up and many re-starts but its not only the first weekend, its just life.

Overall it was a good regional, Congrats to everyone

[Roland]

Can you guys all stop acting like you're better than everyone else for a minute to show me what in the rules this dude's call is based on?

[Cory]

"That dude" happens to be Andy Baker. Sure, just because he has attained near god status doesnt mean that he is almighty and all knowing (Yes, that was Andy that disabled the wrong team during the finals ), but I can guarentee you that he knows the rules better than 90% of the people who post on Chief Delphi, or attended the Portland regional.

If you dont like Andy's call, Im sure he will be happy to talk to you privately and explain why the call was made. For anyone who is upset just because they got "screwed", grow up. It's called life, and it aint fair, no matter how hard you try.

Anyone who comes around here and tries to diss the ref's isnt going to be too popular. I can't think of many things I hate more than people who crap on those who take time out of their lives, for what? Not for their own benefit, that's for sure.

Next time you see someone walking around in a striped shirt, take the time to thank them for their hard work. Dont worry, they wont bite you!

Cory

[edit] a situation from the 2003 Cal Games just came to me, and I think it's perfect.

My team, along with team 256 (thanks for picking us!), and team 254 made it all the way to the finals. When we got to the finals, we and 254 ran the first round, because 256 was broken and trying to fix their bot. We lost (I think?) this round, and moved to the second. Since 256 was still broken, we went again and won (Or was it the other way around?) For the third and final match, we were all set to go with us and 254 again, since 256 was broken. According to the rules (and as Mark Leon said during one match today) if a team breaks down, they do not have to play during the eliminations matches. However, certain individuals complained to the referrees and we had to take our robot off the field, resulting in the opposing alliance having a 2-1 advantage, and us losing.

The moral of the story is, while both us, 254, and most importantly 256 were denied a chance to win (In the case of portland, the same thing occurred, but the call was good) we had to deal with it like the adults we claim to be. Sure, we knew that we were right, and we shouldve been on the field, but complaining and arguing would have done nothing except to make us look bad to everyone at the event (Like booing the ref's today). We didn't even care about winning really, but we felt especially bad for 256, who had played well all day, then broken down during the finals. They were upset that we had to lose that way, and also thought that they had let us down, which was totally untrue, since they brought us into the finals. When everything was all said and done with, our teams were just as proud of the way that we had handled the situation as if we had won. Sure, it sucked, but we knew we did the right thing.

Wow, that was long.

[Tyler Olds]

Originally Posted by Roland

Can you guys all stop acting like you're better than everyone else for a minute to show me what in the rules this dude's call is based on?

Wow way to make your self look good. First off, this "Dude" won the Woodie Flowers Award last year, he is a team leader and an inspiration for thousands of students and other mentors in FIRST (including yours truly). So I would watch what you say.

To show you what Andy Baker's decision was on, read section 4.3.1, which are definitions. The definition "Supported" states: If the "supporting object" is removed............... the robot would not remain hanging.

If I am right, Andy said that he did not feel that the robot was solely supported by the top of the bar. This would be his interpretation of the rules. Don't like it? Instead of making a fuss about it, making your self look bad, and your team, why don't you be a little understanding of the position that Andy is in. It's not like he is bias towards certain teams, he does the best he can.

If this really upsets you this much and you have enough lack of compassion, maybe you should re-take a look of your morals regarding FIRST before you go to another competition.

[Roland]

Tyler, thank you very much for pointing me to this section of the rules. Cory, thanks for answering my question. Wait, did you answer my question? No, you didn't answer my question, you just attacked me for numerous paragraphs for saying that all of you should stop acting like you're better than everyone else. I appreciate volunteers as much as any of you; if it weren't for them I wouldn't be part of FIRST. Some people just need to chill out...

[edomus]

Could someone please tell me the situation in the match and the call that was made. thanks

[ngreen]

The situation was a robot was legally hanging and another push it so that its hook was pushed against the vertical bars attachment. Andy ruled that if the vetical bar wasn't there the hook would have slid off so he ruled they were not hanging. This is discussed in depth in Q & A if you want a reference to the situation.

[KenWittlief]

I hate to even be in this thread, but the whole thing SHOULD be deleted

complaining about a judges call is not GP

complaining about the actions of other teams or individuals is NOT GP EITHER!

telling someone their behavior is not good sportmanship is ITSELF not good sportsmanship

I dont even know what this is all about - apparently a difficult call was made and people were upset

does that surprize you?

why is it not ok for them to be upset, but its ok for you to be upset with them for being upset and coming on here, wagging fingers, using the Lords name, cussing.....

enough already - someone please delete this thread - its not worthy of this forum, or of FIRST.

[Tyler Olds]

Though I do not agree with everything that you have said Ken, I agree this thread should be deleated, I will see to it.

[Amanda Morrison]

I believe the situation was that a hanging robot was supported by the flange on the bar, and that was ruled as an illegal hanging. We saw this call made all over the country, and you can't have one set of rules legal at one competition and another set of rules at another regional. That doesn't work.

Also, with the reports that there was booing of the referees, I'd like to take a step back and say that I hope there is remorse for such an action. We may all be in this program to win, but if you have the audacity to boo a volunteer that is out on that field to be just and fair, you must have missed that whole part of the kickoff that emphasized gracious professionalism. Who cares if it's Andy Baker? Andy Baker is ONE person out on that field. There's several other referees, judges, field resetters, etc. who are helping out that you are insulting. Just because this happens every year doesn't make it any less harsh.

In the heat of competition, a lot of things are said, assumptions made, and grudges held. I would advise you, having been in your exact position myself, to carefully think over what is being said. I would also like to remind you that all personal comments towards other users of the forum should not be posted here - PMing the person will get you better results and not have the rest of us wading through arguments when only looking for information.

Let's make the rest of this season as gracious as possible - let's see the model students that teams brag about, the helpful engineers, the inspiring coaches, and motivating mentors. Let's leave this childishness behind, and let's truly inspire all that we can.