You Cannot Graciously Accept

[StephLee]

Originally Posted by Bcliff358

There is actually something less moronic then "graciously" accepting. It's called "graciously declining". Hmmm, how in any way are you gracious if you decline another teams offer. It's happened before.

If you are broken, it is most certainly gracious to decline an offer. If you are an alliance captain yourself and want to form your own alliance, it's obviously because you think you can make a better match by choosing for yourself. In that case, you could be saving the team picking you from making a BAD decision by choosing you, if you believe the two robots would make a less-than-ideal alliance.

In the past, we've been approached (prior to selections) about a possible alliance, but for one reason or another we believed our robot wasn't very compatible with theirs. We told them so, gave them the reasons, and pointed them toward other teams who were more compatible. We were spared the potential awkwardness of declining when they followed our advice and picked the other team, and they ended up advancing farther in the elimination rounds than we did.

I provide this anecdote to show that, yes, it is possible to graciously decline. If that team had picked us, we would have, because alligning with them would have been a bad move for BOTH teams because of poor compatibility.