History of Team Spirit

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by dk5sm5luigi

As for team spirit I think it has gone down a little (at least in NE) over the past several years. In 1997 and 1998 when the regional was in New Hampshire there were shouting cheers (We've got spirit, etc.) going across the gymnasium and everyone was involved. When the competition was moved to Hartford teams tried to continue this but Meadows was a terrible spectator arena and noise didn't travel that well. The one year the competition was in New Haven the team spirit seemed to pick up and I think this is because it was easy to have cheer wars across the field.

Hopefully this will pick up again, seeing that the UTC New England Regional isn't at the Meadows anymore, but rather at the new Connecticut Convention Center.

As for team spirit, if you watch this video from the 1993 Competition, the level of team spirit is more than evident. The level of team spirit then was probably as much as it is now.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

Hopefully this will pick up again, seeing that the UTC New England Regional isn't at the Meadows anymore, but rather at the new Connecticut Convention Center.

As for team spirit, if you watch this video from the 1993 Competition, the level of team spirit is more than evident. The level of team spirit then was probably as much as it is now.

It's funny watching FIRST in the past and the Championship was no bigger than an off season event.
It really has grown in leaps and bounds.

[Carol]

Well, to be fair the MOE sticks were loud and hurt some people's ears (hence the earplugs). And I can understand FIRST banning loud, annoying noisemakers, tall structures, and food freebies for safety reasons. But the best noisemakers are still the people themselves. Cheering, dancing, applauding for your team and others is still the highly encouraged.

On the other hand, FIRST bans do increase creativity. I can't wait to see how many teams have exactly 10 foot tall pits. And new noisemakers and mascots are popping up every year. I remember a team at Nationals (can't remember who) last year with some interesting shaking type noisemakers. And MOE is still making wobblies - discovered serendipitously by a student last year who was playing around with a sheet of plastic.

I would like to challenge all teams to come up with Spirit aids that don't violate FIRST rules! Let's see what you can do! (After your robot is shipped of course).

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

The Xcats (191) attended the 1st FIRST competition (and won the Chairmans award). Im pretty sure they have video of the event at their facilities. We should bug them to host it on their website, seeing how only a handfull of the original teams are still around.

It was pretty interesting to watch, to compare to the way events are now.

I'm trying to load it up onto Google Video but it's massive and it never quite loads all the way up.