On "graciously" accepting

[eugenebrooks]

Originally Posted by Emily Pease

I know that "gracious professionalism" is a huge part of FIRST, but I was just wondering if anyone knows when or how the "graciously accepting" (in the alliance selection ceremony) started.

I actually think that calling oneself "gracious" is itself ungracious, and it would be better if, when called to join an alliance, the team captain said: "Team [000] humbly accepts team [000]'s gracious offer."

Just getting caught up in semantics...

In the Silicon Valley regional, we were invited to join an alliance by
team 668, the Apes of Wrath, who were seeded higher than us in the
top 8. We did not have to accept because we were in the
top 8 ourselves, we could have formed an independent alliance.
We knew that 668's robot was broken and torn apart in the pits,
the gears in their ball shooter having been stripped. We graciously
accepted the invitation to their alliance, helped them repair their robot
by helping glue and pinning nylon gears on their shafts, and then went
all the way to finalist for the Silicon Valley Regional.

I watched students on team 668 assembling their ball shooter with
just minutes to go before being called up for the finals, their hands
shaking, and it was a sight to behold!

This is "graciously accepting" and defines Gracious Professionalism
as far as I am concerned. We were proud to have done it, and everyone
on the alliance was happy with the result.

In the end, it was a broken wheel on our robot that wounded the alliance
in the third finals match. The eventual winner of SVR, an alliance led
by team 254, gave us their unused 6 minute timeout to complete the
wheel repair, giving us time to bolt on a caster in order to play the
final match of the regional.

So, when teams "graciously accept" an invitation to an alliance
in the finals, this is what we are talking about. Lets not lose
our focus by worrying about the semantics...

Notwithstanding the opinion of the Grammar Curmudgeon, of course...

Eugene