First, I want to start with the context of this project.
I am taking a class on folklore and the final project is to collect folklore and submit it to the university (USC) archive. Your name will not be published. I am looking to collect four luck rituals/words/actions/etc. that teams do (though if you have something you think is folklore, feel free to DM me!). Because this will be published, if I select your team’s ritual, I will ask you to sign a release form. I have attached that for your referenceRELEASE FORM (1).doc (29.5 KB) .
The things I will need from you (the informant) are as follows:
Your luck ritual/words/actions/etc.
Background information about the performance from the informant. How has this passed down? How long have you been doing it? Does it have any fun story behind it?
So, the big question: What does your team do so that you will win the next match, get to champs, or maybe that the robot will just work?
(this is also just an interesting topic for me, so if you want to share but don’t want it as a candidate for my project, feel free to say so or say no when I reach out)
I have never believed in luck, but what’s stopping us from having some awsome traditions to get our spirits high?
I could go on an on about some of the Robototes chants, handshakes, pre match hype, but I’ll go for something a bit more unique.
Sense 2014, 2412 has noticed a trend with our robots. Whenever we design “wings” on our robot (referencing our mascot, the Thunderbird), our robots tend to preform much better that year.
And now, after far too few years of data to prove any legitimate correlation, we love to talk about how awsome our wings are, how they will “make us fly,” and ultimately lead us to victory.
Here’s some pictures so you can get an idea of what type of wings were talking about:
During the 2019 season, Marcus (operator) and I (driver) would say something along the lines of “let’s get this bread” to each other before every match. Does that count?
More seriously, we put a “year of the pig” card on our robot in 2019, and a “year of the rat” card on the 2020 robot (our team name is Pigmice) for good luck.
I’m going to try to pick by longevity because it’s hard to say if it’s a “tradition” if it’s only been happening for a year or two. Regardless, I have heard that phrase before in similar contexts, so may be able to come back to yours.
Oldie but goodie: For several years, 330 had a particular guitar pick somewhere in/on the operator console. IIRC, that span included two trips to Einstein, three to IRI playoffs (2 finals appearances), and multiple regional wins… and in the middle there was 2006. @ShaneP might be able to confirm that a bit better, including the backstory (I don’t recall the backstory on that one myself, or when/if the team eventually stopped). This was 2005-2007 or so, probably through 2008 as well but I graduated after the 2007 season.
COUNTER move: Some of us maintain that calling the 2006 robot Summer after the 2005 robot was Pedro was at least part of the reason we had a bad year… If you don’t understand the joke, google “Vote for Pedro” and add the resulting movie to your safer-at-home playlist.
IIRC, 330’s UNofficial team motto was “the robot runs on prayer”. As a team, we prayed a lot–and more/harder if we were in a tough spot like needing to remove 26 lb of robot without losing functionality. (That was, uh, before those old videos that folks have been posting up lately…)
One of our head mentors has volunteered as an inspector for every event our team has competed at. However, around 2018, we began to notice that we would lose every match that she happened to be watching.
She’s stopped watching our matches, we’ve won two regionals since then.
This year we used our team’s wristband as springs for a subsystem, we did that because it was also done in 2018, of course leading to great success with our robot, in 2019 there were no wristbands on the robot, and the robot failed so we drew some conclusions.
I hope that the team will carry on with this tradition as all of our successful robots used the team’s wristbands somewhere.
I was told that it began in 2018 as a joke but because it worked out really well we just never replaced it.
Worked like a charm on this year’s bot by the way.
The Year of the Pig red envelope card was a gift from the designer (http://www.ashleylow.com/) before we went to Houston last year. We were finalists in every event that the card was on the robot (Turing/Chezy/Peak Performance/Girls Gen). She was excited to design a Year of the (Metal) Rat card this year and we had high hopes that it would bring the same level of luck to us this season, but it was apparently no match for COVID.
My answer is probably too scientific and not metaphysical enough for your folklore class but I firmly subscribe to the scientifically proven idea that you make your own luck. It is the tangible actions you take which set you up for success. Concrete steps can greatly improve your chance of doing well at an event or whatever else it is you are trying to achieve.
Haha, I’m more or less in agreement, however, the point of the collection is for academics to be able to use it for research or such. But folklore is studied because it says a lot about the people doing it. It often describes what they consider to be their identity or a major part of their life.
It’s an interesting class, and I’m happy I picked it (GE class), I get to hear all of these great stories from different culture and groups!
Every robot we’ve named BanTOR has been to (or would’ve been to) champs. This year we went out of our way to do it, and what do ya know, we got a regional wildcard.
I’m going to point out that this applies to robots that are only named BanTOR for SOME of the time as well. 2018 was TORpedo despite having the name BanTOR II early in the season.
6656 likes to give each member a nickname based off of their personality (sunshine for the “rays of sunshine” (sarcastically) or captain obvious for obvious reasons)
members without a nickname always earn one before the end of the competition, since last years near win at AZwest we started making it tradition because everyone present had a nickname. we all had fun
My team (857) has put the same duct tape flower on our robot every year since 2009(?) 2012(?) @Christopher149 might know the exact year.
Sadly in 2018 we had to remove it because we were overweight (that and our sponsor panel).
In that time we have gone to worlds 5(?) Times. We got our first MSC playoffs, first award at MSC, and this season, our first event win (as alliance captains, no less). We also won awards at every district event we competed at since 2014 (2019 season not included). I’d say it’s a pretty lucky flower.
undoubtedly this tradition has since died (been detached from the team for a few years), but when I was a student (and college mentor) on my HS team we had some intense singalongs on comp weekends. Started after our first win in many seasons (2011 I loved you).
