"We Are the Champions" and GP?

[Billfred]

I'm afraid one of your underlying assumptions is false. I Googled the lyrics, and came up with the following chorus in multiple places:

We are the champions - my friends
And we'll keep on fighting - till the end -
We are the champions -
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions - of the world -

Given that FRC has long aimed to use the more desirable aspects of sports, I think a tasteful moment of celebration for the teams who find themselves at the top of their field is appropriate. If nothing else, it makes perfectly clear to those who might be less game-savvy in the audience that the on-field competition has, in fact, concluded.

I don't see any GP issue, and am all for keeping it.

[Karthik]

Hearing "We Are The Champions" after a victory is probably one of my favourite FIRST moments. The song has such historical significance in North American sports, that it's hard not to feel important and celebrated when it plays. FIRST is about celebrating Science and Technology. I definitely want to keep hearing a song that celebrates the teams that win our events. These teams deserve every minute of celebration and recognition that they can get.

Now, I've been on the losers side of the coin. Hearing WATC after a loss isn't exactly fun. But each time I've heard it after a loss, it's made me do two things:
1. Feel happy for the winners, knowing what a great feeling they must be having at that moment.
2. Inspires me to work that much harder next time, to ensure that I'm hearing the song from winner's circle.

So the song makes me recognize the champions, and inspires me to work harder. Sounds like a decent combination to me.

I would hate to see the day come where we downplay the celebration of victory to lessen the burn of defeat. I know there's more to FIRST than just winning on the field, but there's still a competition out there with winners and losers. As long as any sort of celebrating doesn't demean the losers, and is done with class, I see no reason to do away with it.

[aaeamdar]

Originally Posted by Karthik

Hearing "We Are The Champions" after a victory is probably one of my favourite FIRST moments. The song has such historical significance in North American sports, that it's hard not to feel important and celebrated when it plays.

Karthik,

You seem to have missed the fact that other significant parts of North American sports (and, well, almost everywhere else) include: the idea that winning is everything and acting in an unsportsmanlike manner towards your opponents and getting away with it/applauded for it. I would like to think, cheesy as it may sound, that we're all winners at first, and if we all recognized this song as applying to all the teams who built a robot, then really my entire argument collapses. But we all know that that's not the meaning of the song.

I'm glad that you feel recognized when this song plays. However, it's frankly unreasonable for the recognition of winning teams to be more important then (broken record sound) our most important ideals. If recognition has to take a back seat to respecting the entire idea of FIRST, then that's the way it needs to be.

[aaeamdar]

Originally Posted by Billfred

I'm afraid one of your underlying assumptions is false. I Googled the lyrics, and came up with the following chorus in multiple places:

We are the champions - my friends
And we'll keep on fighting - till the end -
We are the champions -
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions - of the world -
Given that FRC has long aimed to use the more desirable aspects of sports, I think a tasteful moment of celebration for the teams who find themselves at the top of their field is appropriate. If nothing else, it makes perfectly clear to those who might be less game-savvy in the audience that the on-field competition has, in fact, concluded.

I don't see any GP issue, and am all for keeping it.

Billfred... I gotta say that I fail to see a large enough difference between the lyrics you quoted and the lyrics I quoted to warrant an underlying issue; both refer to one group as champions while referring to another group pejoratively as losers. Help me out.

Josh, I can't dispute the idea that from your perspective I'm making more out of this than actually matters, because that's your personal feeling about the matter. However, to me a contradiction between one of the most basic ideals of FIRST and /any/ of our actions is worth at least careful consideration (and I don't mean that in the Washington way).