Apologizing for Blowout Match

[smurfgirl]

I came across an article earlier today about a high school basketball team who won a match 100-0, and is now seeking to forfeit their win. They have apologized for their margin of victory, and commended the losing team on their strength of character for continuing for the duration of the match.

While I was reading the article, I kept making connections to FIRST- the concept of competition and Gracious Professionalism simultaneously, and the controversy over this year's rule <G14>. I've been mulling over this article, and over the concept of a blowout match, and I'm still not sure how I want to react to this. Some of the statements in the article include, "it is shameful and an embarrassment that this happened" and, "a victory without honor is a great loss". Those are some pretty heavy statements.

I'm bringing this to others in the FIRST community to see how you feel about this. There are a lot of questions swirling in my mind- is it more honorable to play to your fullest when you are clearly dominating a match, or should you back off at a point? If you are clearly losing a match by a great margin, would you prefer that your opponents to give their all or take it easy on you? Is it shameful to win a match by a huge margin? Did this team do the right thing in apologizing to the winning team and asking to forfeit the match?

Obviously, there are no right answers to these questions, so please respect the opinions of others in this thread, even if they are radically different from yours. My intent is not to start a flame war, but to start a thought-provoking discussion on issues that relate to FIRST as well as to the real world.