Hello! It’s my first year as team captain and I would like to know the exact phrase I must use when accepting (or refusing) another alliance’s invitation or when I would like to invite another team to our alliance. I would greatly appreciate it if I could have the phrase in both English and French (since we’re participating in the Montreal regional). Thanks!
My pet peev is when some “graciously accepts” when joining an alliance. My favorite one was the kid in Houston who said “heck yeah”.
There is no set phrase. You can say whatever you’d like.
The traditional phrase, which some people (including me) find kind of annoying, is “Team (number) graciously accepts”. Describing yourself as gracious isn’t very gracious though.
“Team (number) gratefully accepts” keeps the same cadence without being self-aggrandizing.
A Lil’ Jon style “YEAHHHHH!” is perhaps my favorite though.
I’ve heard teams that list their team sponsors, should I do that too?
Not if you have too many sponsors. I’ve seen teams go on for quite a while listing all of their sponsors and it gets a bit annoying. If you have a few sponsors, though, and you want to thank them in some way you could say “Team XXXX sponsored by … would like to invite Team XXXX to join their alliance”
Please don’t. It seems like a good idea, but there are hundreds of other ways to promote and thank your sponsors, and everyone groans the second someone starts listing their team’s sponsors. We just want to get on with alliance selections, and we’re sure you do to. No matter if you’re inviting people to an alliance or responding to an invitation, just get up there, and get 'er done.
You do not have to list your sponsors. Some team do other don’t if you do please keep it short. My favorite way to accept is “wait FINALLY someone wants me!”
I think 148 says “In partnership with Innovation First” or something like that
I’ve always thought that listing their biggest sponsors during alliance selection is a very classy way for a team to acknowledge the partnership between the sponsor and the team. What if an employee, executive, or owner of the sponsor is at the competition think of how far simply mentioning the company’s name would go with that individual.
I would definitely not list every single person that has given your team money, but if you have two or three main sponsors I see nothing wrong with mentioning their partnership.
Back to OP’s question, I think a simple “Team ####, <Team Name>, would like to invite Team ####, <Other Team’s Name> (or omit their name if you don’t know it), to join our alliance” is sufficient for an invitation. “Team ####, <Team Name>, gratefully accepts.” works just fine for accepting whether or not you decide to list your main sponsors in either situation.
As for French, I have no idea but I’m sure you could find someone at that party of an event that can help you out.
I would love for a team to accept and say" His Devine Shadow. Who do you want me to kill" from the LEXX. But that wouldn’t go over very big.
Would you consider sponsors as part of your team? FIRST thinks you should. That’s why a big part of the Chairman’s Award criteria is your relationships with your sponsors. You can look at sponsors just as cash cows, but that’s the wrong way to do it. Your sponsors should be as much a part of your team as your number or nickname. That’s why 1114 isn’t just “The Simbotics.” They’re Innovation First International/General Motors St. Catharines Powertrain & Governor Simcoe Secondary School … Simbotics.
NOW, that doesn’t mean that you go up and list off every single sponsor. Have you seen the backs of some of these t-shirts? 2056 has two frikken columns of sponsors for crying out loud! So, pick your top 2-4 sponsors. The biggest ones. The ones who you recognize your team would ABSOLUTELY not exist without. They’re probably your “gold” or “title” sponsors: the guys who give you thousands of dollars, or do all of your machining, or donate a huge warehouse for you to use. And show some respect and thankfulness and say their names. It adds 10 seconds to the alliance selections per team.
My rule of thumb is, you better say your sponsors’ names once in the selection process. Whether you’re accepting, inviting, or declining, choose one and rock it. Generally, if you’re declining a selection, it’s because you’re going to go up again to form an alliance. So you can skip all the long stuff and just say
Team 3975 respectfully declines the invitation.
For OP: you could probably say something like:
Team 3975, The Dragons, with UTC, BMO, University of Montreal and Fusion Jeunesse, would like to [accept the invitation] [invite team number #### to be part of our alliance]
Funny how many people mentioned that sponsors should not be mentioned. Something that I noticed was that Canadian teams almost always mention their sponsors in alliance selections. Looking back at Waterloo 2012 selections (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4CkGuJaEQU), 14 out of the first 17 teams invited to an alliance mentioned their sponsors. One of the declines was an American team while another was a rookie team. I stopped counting after the 1st round was over.
Must be a Canadian thing…
I certainly think so. 
Saturday was crazy at GTR West this year and I was hyped for alliance selections. It kind of killed the mood though when each team spent 5+ minutes listing sponsors. I can respect the formality/professionalism and I realize it’s up to the teams, but it’s painful to watch…
“Team #### accepts, and together, we shall rule the galaxy”
Our alliance invitation phrase from Palmetto:
“On behalf of the Hype Train, The Magic School Bus, and Dairy Queen, Team 1648 accepts.”
Better things in store for Peachtree. 
The best advice I can give is to keep it simple. Examples:
“Team 148 would like to invite team XXXX to join our alliance.”
“Team 148 accepts.”
“Team 148 respectfully declines.”
When 3548 accepted our offer, because I was in shock was a simple “we would love to”.
Our coach said “YES” It was enough everyone understood the emotion it conveyed.
To answer your question as directly as possible, there is no phrase you MUST use.
There are many ways to say Yes. Most teams say “Team xxx Gratefully accepts your invitation” or “Team xxx respectfully declines your invitation”.
Thinks that are cute or ‘different’ are OK, but basically you are saying “Yes” (or maybe “No Thanks”, work from there.
French? Can’t help you there. Maybe “Oui” and “Non Merci”
One thing that has been really cool that I’ve seen done for alliance selections this year:
Team XXXX would be happy to assist you in the eliminations.