Spirit award

[safiq10]

Does anyone have any ideas for spirit cause right now our only idea is to have a dancing mascot dance the entire competition. And im the mascot so ideas would be nice cause 3 days of dancing for 8-10 hours can cause some serious leg aches.

[MrTechCenter]

If you have enough students on your team, you can do chants, wave banners (when your team is on the field), cheer, and my personal favorite, start spirit battles with other large/spirited teams in the stands. And depending on the venue in which your regional is being held, conga line. At Sac last year, there was a conga line that literally stretched the length of the building. It didn't interfere with the regional in anyway because it was nowhere near the field.

[ehfeinberg]

The spirit award is not just how much you yell, or how many banners you wave (albeit this is a big part) most teams at competition do this. In order to win the spirit award, you need to make your team distinct and stand out. When a judge looks into the stands, there are 64 teams all standing and yelling at the top of their lungs. What is going to make the judges remember your team?

My team won the spirit award in 2011 because of how visible we were. Our shirts were distinct, our buttons were all over the place, and our drive team all dressed like doctors (our robots name was Dr. Aughun). By having something distinct, clear, and visible, the judges remembered our number when it came to judging.

All though you need to cheer as loud as you can, strong team branding is the key to wining the Team Spirit Award.

[Red2486]

Last year we made signs with "red alliance", "blue alliance", "go FIRST", and signs with our drive team members names on them. We also cut out about 4'x2 numbers to hold in the stand that made our team number.

[safiq10]

thanks their all great ideas. We have another robotics program in Texas called BEST I was the mascot and basically at our booth we had a mascot their dancing the entire time and same thing in the pit.

[brrian27]

Hey there!

My team has won the Spirit award in every competition we've gone to since 2011 so maybe I can help you out with this

Like some of the others said, Spirit is not merely being in the stands! But still that is a big part of it! For every minute of the competition have someone in the stands dancing! For the first practice day and whatever, it's not as important, but once serious matches start it's very important to always be dancing and cheering! Even in times where we haven't made it into the elimination rounds or have already been eliminated we continue to cheer And in the hotel and at school the whole team is taught our unique dances. (Get some unique dances.)

But just as important, make a presence for your team! Our mascot is a ninja so in odd times we have the ninja running around, either giving free hugs or playing ninja with other teams. When the mechanics entered the pit our mentor would yell "Ninjas! Goggles!" And we all stopped and put on our goggles in sync. And we have a distinctive cheer, one person yells "Go Ninja go!!" And everyone shouts "TA TA KAI!"

So yeah! Make sure everyone in the whole arena knows your team and has seen you guys being happy and enthusiastic all over Just be happy and fun and bring in the spirit! Good luck!

[safiq10]

thanks were working on a 3 man cordinated dance and some of these ideas are really good im going to borrow some of them. Konga-line here we come

[Sandvich]

Vuvuzelas. Lots and lots of vuvuzelas.

[Koko Ed]

We've won the spirit award five times. We practice cheering at the beginning and the end of every meeting. We also have a large catalog of cheers we use.

[Carol]

Spirit is more about ACTIONS than appearance. Appearance is important, yes, but having the best banners and costumes doesn't get you much if the team is sleeping in the stands.

And note section 4.13 TEAM SPIRIT AND TEAM "LOOK" in Section 4 of the Administrative Manual. Field personnel will not take kindly to hearing "lots and lots of vuvuzelas" all day. Trust me on this.



P.S. Lots of teams skip the Administrative Manual and concentrate on the Game Manual. Both are valuable.

[MrBydlon]

Our team really likes to do the Roller Coaster in the stands. Video evidence here.

Wearing coordinating t-shirts is also really important (for regional and for every single event your team attends).

Having constant positive attitudes when dealing with other teams is also important.

The conversation with the judges as they walk around on Thursday and Friday also factor into the decision. Discuss what makes your team awesome and full of spirit when talking with the judges.

Handing out SWAG is important. We like to handout wristbands but buttons, stickers, wood decals, necklaces, and a million other things are handed out as well. More examples are found here.

There are just a ton of stuff that factor into the Spirit Award (just like every other award). Appearance, attitude, cheers, signs, swag, all of it adds up.