A Question on Sportsmanship

[Solace]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

The wording seems wrong here. The rules don't give alliances the power to choose which rules to enforce in the first place, so the term "refuse" is too strong a choice. It makes it appear that you're condemning an alliance for merely not ignoring the rule about which robots must play.

I don't know the whole situation, but from the description you gave, I have to say that the complaint seems in poor sport.

not having been at BtB, i am not going to comment on the actual incident. the story, however, does not merely end there. My team (571), was part of 61's alliance, and by the transitive property we are now taking flak for decisions made by our alliance captain that some people, such a Steve M, have deemed ungracious.

I realize that, as a part of 61's alliance, my views are slightly biased. but I ask you this - which is more ungracious? that we were part of an alliance that won because of our alliance captain's (61) unwillingness to allow another team to break the rules? or members of that team, out of bitterness, attempting to give our alliance a bad reputation through complaints such as this?

allow me to illustrate further. a few days after beantown, a student on our team was contacted by another student from a team that was apparently extremely unhappy about the events that transpired. he informed our team member that the entire first community was extremely pissed about what we had done, and that certain members of his team were even going to the extent of writing letters to FIRST informing them of the incident, so that if we ever were to try for a chairman's award we would not even be considered.

now, this is most likely just the pent up frustration of an individual who does not represent the whole of his team, seeing as some of his claims are extremely difficult to believe. nonetheless, it illustrates just how out of proportions some of these issues can be blown into. the fact that someone would be so angry over the event as to threaten retribution over us for a decision made by a completely different team goes to show that we should all step back, take a deep breath, and stop lingering over sour grapes. this is a competition, and it is supposed to be fun. a strategic decision another team makes that somehow puts your team at a disadvantage is just that, a strategic decision. it is not a personal affront to your honor, and is not intended as such. If we did insult anyone to such an extent, then I apologize on the account of our team and our alliance. we made a strategic decision, and I would hope in the future such decisions will be viewed in the light in which they are intended.