Cheering, standing ovations, and required team actions during matches and awards

[arabsponsor]

I applaud your team for standing and cheering for all teams during the award ceremony. Like your team, team 538 has not always showed what I consider good sportsmanship. My first year, the team wanted to leave before the award ceremony because they didn't think we would get anything and they didn't care about those who did. I quickly explained that we would stay and they would treat the teams that won with respect and cheer for them. In fact the team ended up winning a Judges award that year. Think about how it would have looked to FIRST if we were not even there to accept the award. And I can tell you, each team member appreciated the applause and cheering they received when picking up the award.

Many times people feel that life is not always fair and sometimes feel overlooked when it comes to awards, promotions, and accolades. But we have to remember we don't always know what the other person has done to receive what we feel should be ours. The winner may have taken that one extra step needed to get the recognition. That person deserves your applause for a job well done.

I know that at all FIRST competitions, team 538, will stand and applaud every team during the award ceremony. They deserve the applause for a job well done. Team 538 apologizes to you if you disagree but we love cheering for everyone in FIRST.

[Kevin Sevcik]

So I still stick by my stance waaaay earlier in this thread that people should just think about the other people around them, whether they're standing or sitting. I figured I'd relate something that happened at LSR, though.

I was sitting with my girlfriend near the top of the stands, and a match just ended. A pair of students in front of us were standing up because they had a robot in the match and it was fairly exciting. Then they kept standing. And kept standing. Presumably waiting for scores. Then the next match started and they were STILL standing, not even interested in the match. Finally we ask them to sit down, and a few people behind us ask them to sit down. And the respond with "Okay!" in a tone conveying that we were horribly inconveniencing them.

This is where the strife between the sitters and the standers comes from. Inconsiderate people on both sides just make it a very contentious issue for those of us that just want to have a good time without annoying everyone around us.

[Andrew Y.]

Before robotics was started at our school, alomst 100% of students attended our back to back to back to back etc. state championship basketball team. At every game, EVERYONE in the stands stood throughout the remaineder of the game, and that tradition has followed to our robotivcs team.

We stand for our team, teams we are close with, or if theres a really really good match. It has become apart of what our team is. For the past 4 years of our teams existence, we have stood up and cheered for those we thought deserved cheering. DEFIDENTLY durring the awards. This year is the first time i have ever heard of getting angry at our team when we stood up durring our teams match.

I do see the side of thsoe who want everyone to sit, but i also believe that the spirit and atitude in the stands reflect what FIRST is all about and speaking for alot of drivers, it really makes us feel good .

Eventually we decided it wasnt worth the people behind us complaining and yelling at us to sit down so we sat down. But i do hope that this changes and people see why we stand.

[thatphotochick]

standing and cheering is understood. we always, at least close enough to that, stand up and cheer for our team and many times alliance during the introduction of the match. sometimes we'll stand and cheer during the match, but we try not to stand for the whole match. or we in the back and not blocking many to any people. i do think it is annoying for people to keep standing for the whole match. concerning awards, you SHOULD stand and cheer for the winner, showing them the respect they deserve for winning (though forcing somebody to stand is crazy and uncalled). it's only the most respectful thing to do during matches is at least be considerate to other teams trying to watch as well. if you are asked to sit down, do it and don't get angry. that's not what FIRST is about.

[aziandorkess]

Our team (812) is extremely spirited, and is guilty of many of the concerns that people have brought up. This year, at the SoCal regional we stand at field level, as the stands are elevated, so others can see. Past years, we stand to the side, or the sections where people aren't directly in back of us. We try to be sensitive to others' problems with our cheering or what not.
The majority of the team cheer, dance, and make tons of noise.. not to irritate people, but because we're infatuated with FIRST! Some teams have come up to us to ask us to cheer for them, or with them, and we always cheer for Team San Diego teams... so we end up always cheering throughout the competition.
To us, it's only appropriate to stand and applaud while a team is receiving an award. It's also much easier to high-five the team members that win.
Now, it's much easier and more natural to cheer standing up than sitting down. Cheering makes the competition so much more fun, and keeps you involved, rather than sitting down and watching.
Most of the center sections are very spirited, so most teams who like to concentrate on scouting or just watching should keep that in mind. Again, at the SoCal regional, we went down from the elevated stands to stand and cheer. I'm not sure about other regionals, but it'd be nice to have such an area. In any case, most teams that cheer are usually gracious professionals, and would be happy to accomodate, or reach some sort of compromise... as long as you approach them with your concerns.

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by Andrew Y.

Before robotics was started at our school, alomst 100% of students attended our back to back to back to back etc. state championship basketball team. At every game, EVERYONE in the stands stood throughout the remaineder of the game, and that tradition has followed to our robotivcs team.

We stand for our team, teams we are close with, or if theres a really really good match. It has become apart of what our team is. For the past 4 years of our teams existence, we have stood up and cheered for those we thought deserved cheering. DEFIDENTLY durring the awards. This year is the first time i have ever heard of getting angry at our team when we stood up durring our teams match.

I do see the side of thsoe who want everyone to sit, but i also believe that the spirit and atitude in the stands reflect what FIRST is all about and speaking for alot of drivers, it really makes us feel good .

Eventually we decided it wasnt worth the people behind us complaining and yelling at us to sit down so we sat down. But i do hope that this changes and people see why we stand.

Andrew, your team is now officially recognized as team SuperSpirit in my post here. Please understand that neither I nor any other team here has any problem with you being as spirited as you want, nor do we mind you standing as long as you want. The fundamental problem is that you happen to be standing in our way. You say it wasn't worth the people behind you complaining and yelling at you. The fact that they had to yell at all should've started all sorts of alarm bells.
If you show up in a section of the stands and don't let people around you know that you're about to block their view for the rest of the day, it's a bit rude. They were there first. Similarly, it's not nice to do so in the middle of the stands, causing property values to plummet for 5 rows behind you. If you're going to stand for most of the matches, you could simply move towards the back of the seating where you wouldn't bother anyone in the first place. Then you could be spirited and other people could be happy. Presumably this is followed by doves all over the place, harp music, and angels descending from heaven, but all that is a lot more optional than being considerate of others.

[Andy Baker]

Originally Posted by Kevin Sevcik

Presumably this is followed by doves all over the place, harp music, and angels descending from heaven, but all that is a lot more optional than being considerate of others.

Well... we had doves, bagpipes, and Mandy Moore in Orlando. All must have been swell down there.

[lukevanoort]

I have absolutely no problem with cheering during awards, it really makes the winning team feel good, and is the right thing to do.
<RANT> However, standing up during matches really gets on my nerves. It makes it much harder for the team behind to see what's going on and so they have to stand up, then the ones behind them. Often I've had trouble seeing our own robot's matches when people in front of me stood up and/or held big signs. It's just like a movie at the theatre, you wouldn't want someone standing up during your favorite part would you? Standing up for a short time to cheer in a match is fine as long as you sit down quickly, but if the person behind you is missing seeing the robot they've toiled over for six long weeks perform, then it isn't fair to them. </RANT>

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by Andy Baker

Well... we had doves, bagpipes, and Mandy Moore in Orlando. All must have been swell down there.

Ok, Andy, the doves are obvious, and I'm totally with you on Mandy Moore, but it takes a very special kind of person to equate bagpipes with harps.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Andy Baker

I said something like "we will stand up and cheer for those teams, because we would appreciate it if they stood up for us".

...and when OTHER teams cheered for US, it WAS heard and we DID appreciate it. A Lot. So that's why Team 1676 cheers for EVERYONE who wins an award, or does well in a match. We should all be proud of each other's accomplishments, and celebrate successes together.

Don

[Robocat1]

For our first 2-3 years Team 379, the Robocats, just kinda sat there, trying to figure it all out.
After some success, and a little (very little) cheering, we reached a Pittsburgh Regional where our robot just wasn't going to run!
I told our team: "We can either sit here and pout for two days, or we can get up, dance, cheer, and have fun." They took it from there (and won the Sportsmanship Award, although that wasn't the goal, it was a truly unexpected surprise).

And that's what we've done ever since. It just happened. Now we encourage it because it was a good thing because everyone had a great time!

Yes, our mentors do encourage cheering for others and yes, we do teach "dances" at summer camp. Its not all about robots. I now see students who used to just sit quietly during the entire 3-day competition dancing between matches and shaking the pom-poms and towels for matches. Some students who I thought I could never get excited about anything are now the first to stand, cheer or dance! Who would have thought that!? They've been exposed not only to engineering and technology (and don't forget language arts), but to spirit and fun!

And when they're so exhausted from the day's activities that they want to be "checked in" for lights out in their hotel room before the scheduled lights out time, I know they've had a good, fun, memorable day! I couldn't ask for anything more.

We usually do try to sit at the back, but this doesn't always happen. Its then that I find myself telling the team to sit down, and I feel bad doing so. But then again, they're learning courtesy. Its a very gray line, and hard to decide which side to be on, but this thread helps to see it from others' points of view - thanks!

[BHS_STopping]

I'm perfectly satisfied with people cheering in the stands. In fact, I would definitely encourage it for any and all teams at the competition. The only problem that I have, though, is the constant standing ovations that teams in the stands give whenever their bot is on the field (you can see your robot perfectly well without standing up, unless of course you're sitting behind Yao Ming or Shaquille O'Neal).

As scouts, it makes our job very difficult when the backs of certain people are blocking our view of the field. For us, scouting means the difference between choosing a great allliance or lowering your chances at winning. But when the teams are being announced, it's a-okay to jump up and cheer for your own team, seeing as how there's nothing really to miss. Also, during the Quarter finals, standing up shouldn't be a problem, as we have no more need for scouting.

But otherwise, I think that this is meant to be an exciting event, and the cheering is what really livens the place up, especially when other people are cheering when your alliance is doing well. And yes, I am guilty of that on more than one occasion.

[ScoutingNerd175]

As the obsessive scouting captain of a team that has (I think pretty recently) become known for it's detailed scouting, I would probably be expected to come down on the side of no standing.

But I'm not going to. My team is fairly small, about 18 students, and like all other teams in FIRST, we work hard on our robot. After all the hard work that we do on our robot (just like all other teams) we are proud of it. We our proud of our robot, our drivers, and ourselves. When our robot is on the field we are going to stand and cheer for it. The only other time that we will stand is during awards. During awards at least, I must say that if you cannot see because a team in front of you is standing, you should stand too.

Now when the team if front of us has a match, we generally expect them to stand. When my scouts say that they cannot see, I usually tell them to stand too. I believe it was 1276 who was in the stands in front of us at BAE. When they would have a match we would scout around them. Once their match was over and the scores had been posted, we asked them to sit down if they were still standing (which usually they weren't, congratulations on your win and we enjoyed sitting near you guys (although we were mostly near the adults))

I think that it is perfectly fine for teams to stand while their robot is playing. It's only going to happen about 8 times during qualification matches, so it shouldn't be that big of a deal.

At Chesapeake an announcement was made asking teams not to stand up anymore. We complied with this, although we were upset about it. However, not all teams did. I don't think it's fair to ask a team to sit down while their robot is playing the regional finals. I don't know, I guess I can understand the other side, but I think that teams not playing should try to understand that the teams that are playing are very excited and that they want to cheer their drivers to victory (or not).

That being said, if you do want to stand and cheer for every team, not just your own, during matches, you should try to find a seat near the back so that you won't block anyone.

And yes, regional winners and chairman's winners often go pretty crazy. I know that we were cheering for a long time at Chesapeake and the winning alliance did the same thing at UTC. To be fair, we had come of off a regional, BAE, that was probably the worst our team has ever had for various reasons that I don't need to go into. To see the turn around for us between our two regionals was a huge deal. We went to Chesapeake just hoping to be picked. I believe that the two other teams on our alliance had both never won a regional before and both did not have a slot at nationals before they won. So yeah, we were excited and I bet all the teams who won regionals this year would concur.