The FIRST Devil's Dictionary

FIRST General Forum
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The Verge published a new edition of The Devil’s Dictionary, after Ambrose Bierce’s original of over a century ago. (A little strong language in there.)

I’m sure you’ve got some definitions of your own…

Blue banner (n.) An indisputable symbol of excellence in competition or onetime possession of $300.

Championship (n.) A systematic means of determining that you may or may not be the best in the world.

Cheesecake (v.) To run circles around an alliance partner to run circles around the opponent.

Corn dog (n.) Verification that one was paying attention in 2014.

OP (adj.) 1. Overpowered. 2. A captain who only idiots decline at alliance selection.

Scorched earth (adj.) Ensuring you will win your division by ensuring you will never win Einstein.

Let’s hear them.

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Gracious Professionalism (n.): The crutch for so many people when they hear something they don’t like or agree with in the FIRST world.

Rap music (n.): A mythical genre of music, generally frowned upon by FIRST at competitions when played.

Deodorant (n.): A hygiene item most well-adjusted human beings use to allow for breathable air in their general vicinity for other people.

Dance music (n.): A method of torture so heinous that the CIA outlawed its use in interrogation.

Scouting (v.): 1. Distraction for underclassmen and slackers on the teams that don’t give a flip about winning. 2. Figuring out who’s full of it.

Alliance selection (n.): A comedy show. See also schadenfreude (n.).

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Graciously Accepting (v.): Pointing out one’s graciousness by ignoring rules of grammar and proper usage.

ROBOT! (n.): Exclamation designed to annoy others into safe practices. Highly ineffective.

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chiefdelphi (n): An internet bulletin board site where users can insult others’ creations, or complain how things aren’t how they used to be.

GDC (n): A collaboration of socially powerful people specifically created to not comment on individual designs.

Mentor (n): An adult who likes to play with children’s toys, with children.

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mDNS (n.) - The reason it takes you minutes to connect to your 2015 bot but only seconds to connect to your 2014 bot.

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Mentor-built (adj.): A term describing a robot that is better than your own, and / or a robot with paint on it.

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Stall Torque (n): quantitative measure of a motor’s capability to twist things until they break

Stall Current (n): quantitative measure of a motor’s potential to release magic smoke, either from itself or from other electrically connected things

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Golden Skrew (n.): The award given to the highest seeded team who does not get picked for eliminations.

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Mecanum wheel (n.) A wheel for going in every direction if your programmers had just one more week with the drivetrain.

Duct tape (n.) A previously-banned substance so fatal to a robot’s chances of getting picked it might as well still be.

Minibot (n.) A way to spend thousands of dollars on Tetrix motors for the least impressive demo feature ever.

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OPR (n.) Objectively Preferred Rating.
We seeded low but our OPR was the highest of all teams.

CCWM (n.) Consequently Calculated for a Worthier Metric.
We seeded low and the OPR put us in the middle of the pack, so we used CCWM instead to include our defensive prowess

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**Average (n.) - **In FRC scouting, the greatest element within a data set. Typically only occurs once in the data set. Often only on a practice field with no other robots.

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Noodle Agreement (n.) The backroom deal made over a bowl of ramen to strategically remove any possible strategic thinking from an FRC game through rule updates and FAQ responses.

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**Always (adj.) - ** Happened once… if you squint your eyes and ignore the programmer kicking it a little. See also Average.

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chute door (n.) Yes, Chute Door. See 2015 Q163

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Finished (adj.) - the state of a robot, system, or component that appears to be mechanically complete, before any software is tested.

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Unprocessed litter (n.) All portions of pool noodles thrown on the field in the last match that haven’t been put in the trash can yet.

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Picklist (n.) -Hastily written scribblings from 4 AM that are incomprehensible when it matters most,
or something the 5th-8th alliance captains never seem to have

Reveal Video (n.) -A series of thoroughly edited clips showing video of features your robot never actually had, and set to one of 5 different popular pop songs of the year, or alternatively, a screamo cover of a Justin Bieber song

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Nationals (n.) - a term that us old timers use when we’ve forgotten what year it is, See World Championship (n.), Worlds (n.)

Ship day (n.) - The day a completed robot was hastily packed into a large wooden box with a random assortment of graphics and numbers painted on the side, then shipped off to a faraway place, See Nationals (n.)

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2015 Q163 (n.) - Yes, Chute door. See Chute Door.

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Week 5 (n.): A magical land where programmers get to code the robot and drivers get their practice. Only certain teams know of its whereabouts.