Gracious Professionalism

[Wolfe]

Our team gets a lot of comments about Gracious Professionalism. It seems most people define the concept this way:

Gracious Professionalisms Behavior that would be approved by your kindergarten teacher while building a block tower with little Jamie.

Our robot is mainly drive system but also has a wedge to move around other robots. It can move around almost every robot in the competition by pushing it, or wedging and dragging it. Several people have refused to believe this is legal despite FIRST's approval.

This year's competition had contact for a reason, because it is a legitimate strategy. It's not unfair or any easier to build a bruiser robot. It is a very effective strategy as seen by that fact that our team won the Canadian Regional.

Most people's argument is that while it may not break any rules, it is not very gracious. Well, look at the phrase Gracious Professionalism. It doesn't say you have to be Gracious! Gracious is an adjective, modifying the noun Professionalism. You have to Graciously Professional. It is NOT the spirit of Graciousness and Professionalism!