spirit award

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

It's my opinion that the Spirit award has to do with how the team comports itself on the field, off the field, in the stands, in the pits, in the venue area, in the hotels. Everywhere.

The cheers and fun the teams have in the stands are a celebration of their season together and the culmination of a team-building experience in getting the robot and the team to competition. That's one reason I enjoy the Rookie All-Star award so much. It reflects that beautifully.

I'm going with you on this...nobody needs noisemakers to win a Spirit Award..its cheering for your team when u win or lose, cheering for a rookie team that does well or bad that day, cheering for a team whose prospects were looking down one day but worked hard to compete again, your opposing alliance...anything that shows true character is spirit...not noisemakers (except your lungs of course )


Make your team realize why they're there..to have fun no matter what's going on down on the field. They need the mindset that every team competing is having its ups and downs and that they all need support. Support a small team who doesn't have a large cheering section perhaps. It all shows through the true character of your team and not by how loud you are.

[MoeMom]

Originally Posted by Mr MOE

Take it from a team that knows. Banging sticks (especially lime green and black striped ones) is definitely not encouraged.

Also "not encouraged" ...30 foot pit towers with blinking lights and digital displays. Oh well. Safety beats spirit just about every time.

[DonRotolo]

A better choice would be to carefully read what the spirit award is about, and use that to plan your strategy. Team 1676 was pleasantly surprised last year when we won it in Toronto. I feel that our relentless offers of assistance (real offers, too, not just lip service) to all other teams helped. We sent squads around looking for people to be helped, we responded to every request announced by pit admin (when we had what they needed) and walked fast (no running!) to get the item to the other team. That and just being friendly, and cheering everyone (not just 1676) probably helped too.

[Madison]

My crotchety old person opinion is that it should be illegal to try to win the award. Do things because you like doing them or because it helps others. Don't do things to win awards.

[BHS_STopping]

Originally Posted by Madison

My crotchety old person opinion is that it should be illegal to try to win the award. Do things because you like doing them or because it helps others. Don't do things to win awards.

I agree. Even though the awards are very good motivators to try and excel in all aspects of FIRST, many participants realize after the first event or two that having fun and winning awards are mutually exclusive. Success shouldn't be measured by how full your trophy case is; it's about having an amazing experience which you can keep with yourself forever.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by BHS_STopping

I agree. Even though the awards are very good motivators to try and excel in all aspects of FIRST, many participants realize after the first event or two that having fun and winning awards are mutually exclusive. Success shouldn't be measured by how full your trophy case is; it's about having an amazing experience which you can keep with yourself forever.

Not quite mutually exclusive... You can have fun without winning an award, but if you get an award (especially if you didn't try for it), you have even more fun!

[BHS_STopping]

Originally Posted by EricH

Not quite mutually exclusive... You can have fun without winning an award, but if you get an award (especially if you didn't try for it), you have even more fun!

Oh, definitely true. Perhaps fun and winning awards shouldn't always have to go hand in hand, but both can certainly be a great way to end a competition!

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Madison

My crotchety old person opinion is that it should be illegal to try to win the award. Do things because you like doing them or because it helps others. Don't do things to win awards.

While I personally agree with you sponsors like awards, students like awards. But, teams can often focus on something because they feel passionate about it and end up winning an award for it. I think this is a good thing.

As a joke, we all like awards cuz they are shiny and who doesn't like shiny?

[Roger]

Originally Posted by MoeMom

Also "not encouraged" ...30 foot pit towers with blinking lights and digital displays.

To concur with this (I think: I haven't seen any 30 foot towers in the pits. Maybe 3 foot ones?) -- One year the team opposite us in the pit had a couple of those blinky safety cones, the ones with the flashy red lights, sitting in the front corners of their pit. Which, when sitting at our programming laptop, would blink-blink-blink right above the laptop screen. Very distracting, and I'm not sure very safe either.

[dsmoker]

I agree with the above posters that the team spirit award is about more than who has the most people/makes the most noise in the stands. When 558 won the award at the CT regional in 2007, it was to recognize the extraordinary efforts that the urban team members had to undergo just to be a part of the team, like walking and biking to meetings in all kinds of weather, as well as their willingness to help other teams.

[bduddy]

Originally Posted by Roger

To concur with this (I think: I haven't seen any 30 foot towers in the pits. Maybe 3 foot ones?) -- One year the team opposite us in the pit had a couple of those blinky safety cones, the ones with the flashy red lights, sitting in the front corners of their pit. Which, when sitting at our programming laptop, would blink-blink-blink right above the laptop screen. Very distracting, and I'm not sure very safe either.

I believe at least one team at SVR used PVC pipes to "claim" all the 3-dimensional space they were allowed... but a 30-foot tower? Has anyone seriously done this?

[Roger]

I got a safety token for sweeping out our pit when the robot left. It's nice to get small recognition like that for something that needed done anyway. Y'know, if they gave those out at work I might clean my desk more often!

I'm still wondering about that 30 foot tower with blinky lights. Maybe they were landing airplanes? I suppose in the "old days" it was possible there was one, but in the past couple of years isn't there a rule of nothing over 10 feet?

[Mr MOE]

Originally Posted by Roger

I'm still wondering about that 30 foot tower with blinky lights. Maybe they were landing airplanes? I suppose in the "old days" it was possible there was one, but in the past couple of years isn't there a rule of nothing over 10 feet?

MOE 365 had a 20 foot tower a few years before the 10 foot tower rule was put into place. I know a few other teams had towers over 10 feet at that time, too.

[Carol]

Originally Posted by Mr MOE

MOE 365 had a 20 foot tower a few years before the 10 foot tower rule was put into place. I know a few other teams had towers over 10 feet at that time, too.

Here is a pic from 2004 of MOE's 20 ft tower before it got downsized. It sure made it easy to find them in the pits!

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Carol

Here is a pic from 2004 of MOE's 20 ft tower before it got downsized. It sure made it easy to find them in the pits!

Yeah because the bright green make you SO hard to find.

And you know, in 2007 RUSH was called many things, one of those was an aircraft carrier, something about a ramp the size of a truck bed. And based on the number of teams who didnt manage to get up it (9 degree incline) we coulda used some lights to guide them.