Starting a Scioly Team as a Student (kind of)

[foxinni]

My gosh- it posted the same response 3 times? I'm sorry- I'm not sure why it did that. Is there a way someone can delete them? (I don't think I have the ability to do so)

[pumptato-cat]

Yeah, CA is hard. I'm glad my state isn't as cutthroat..

yeah, I think the main thing that I'm glad for is the fact I'm not IN one of the cutthroat schools. Instead of being on a team with people who don't even want to TALK to me, I'm on a team where everyone is chill (but still really smart) and where they have F U N together.
I think a lot of these more successful, dominating schools tend to lose the fun and enjoyable aspect of scioly: the part that's supposed to be a "fun science competition" where you get to "meet like-minded individuals".

Don't think I agree. My team is not very good (we call qualifying for state a good result), but we compete against some of those hard core cutthroat schools. I've had some great interactions with some of their team members, and I've seen them having plenty of fun. They also take the competition seriously, and are trying to do their best, and continually looking for opportunities to improve, but they can have fun in the process.

I think the big advantage in competing in competitions with a bunch of hard-score schools is that the events get run right. Some of the less competitive competitions have event supervisors who have only a casual acquaintance with the rules, or have the mindset that "this is a fun competition, so we're going to ignore the rules and just do what we want", which just makes the competition miserable - not only do you not have a level playing field, you don't even know where the playing field is.

Yeah, I think what foxinni said is definitely true for some schools I see at the national level, but I've seen the top teams in my state and they look like they're having a blast. I guess it all depends on your teammates and whether you got lucky that year... and also how your team is run.
knightmoves, your second point is very good. My region is full of teams that don't care much, and when I confront ESs.. let's just say it doesn't go well. Almost all my events were run quite badly(Codebusters, however, was absolutely amazing!). And that makes for a quite miserable competition experience.

[foxinni]

Yeah, I think what foxinni said is definitely true for some schools I see at the national level, but I've seen the top teams in my state and they look like they're having a blast. I guess it all depends on your teammates and whether you got lucky that year... and also how your team is run.
knightmoves, your second point is very good. My region is full of teams that don't care much, and when I confront ESs.. let's just say it doesn't go well. Almost all my events were run quite badly(Codebusters, however, was absolutely amazing!). And that makes for a quite miserable competition experience.

Yeah- my friend is on MN's best team (last year Chippewa for Div B, and this year Mounds View for Div C) and while they're a super determined team, and almost always win state, they're still having tons of fun and the whole team likes each other. I don't want to name any schools, of course, but some of the people I've personally encountered/seen at my Invitations/Regionals... let's just say, they were a little hostile to themselves. (to each other, in the team: no teams are really actively rude to each other, though, which is good.)
But yeah it's unfortunate that the regions that don't value Scioly as much don't run the events as well :(

[pumptato-cat]

Ahh that sounds awesome!
Yeah, I see that in less successful teams in my region, too. They don't seem to care about the competition, nor their teammates. It's quite upsetting. Take Flight for example--I hear stories of kind people lending winders/lubricant/torque meters/rubber to others who need it and who are quite obviously struggling. When I went to regionals, I didn't see any of that cooperation(I probably should have helped out, but in my defense, I was running 40 minutes late due to Scrambler being run incorrectly... Barely made it to my next event in time). People trying to fly their planes without winders, or torque meters, or lubricant... or the rubber snapping and teams looking around for spare rubber they didn't have.
Where'd that cooperation go? Why does everything have to be so competitive? It can be competitive AND friendly... But I don't think that will happen any time soon.

[Jehosaphat]

Ahh that sounds awesome!
Yeah, I see that in less successful teams in my region, too. They don't seem to care about the competition, nor their teammates. It's quite upsetting. Take Flight for example--I hear stories of kind people lending winders/lubricant/torque meters/rubber to others who need it and who are quite obviously struggling. When I went to regionals, I didn't see any of that cooperation(I probably should have helped out, but in my defense, I was running 40 minutes late due to Scrambler being run incorrectly... Barely made it to my next event in time). People trying to fly their planes without winders, or torque meters, or lubricant... or the rubber snapping and teams looking around for spare rubber they didn't have.
Where'd that cooperation go? Why does everything have to be so competitive? It can be competitive AND friendly... But I don't think that will happen any time soon.

I can't say I have had the same experience. Of course, I am competitive and want to win my event, probably more competitive than most. But other than the fairly common quiet kid in Scioly, almost everyone is extremely helpful and outgoing, part of the reason I love it so much. Don't get me wrong, you break the rules I am going to call you out on it, but I will most certainly lend you my goggles so you don't get disqualified.

Maybe it is just the fact I am in a fairly chill region and state, but Scioly has never been a place I have witnessed hostility or animosity. I have played my fair share of sports and have had disliked other teams for the smallest perceived slight, but have yet to have that happen in Scioly.

We are all here to grow and learn, and hopefully win a few medals along the way.

[foxinni]

Ahh that sounds awesome!
Yeah, I see that in less successful teams in my region, too. They don't seem to care about the competition, nor their teammates. It's quite upsetting. Take Flight for example--I hear stories of kind people lending winders/lubricant/torque meters/rubber to others who need it and who are quite obviously struggling. When I went to regionals, I didn't see any of that cooperation(I probably should have helped out, but in my defense, I was running 40 minutes late due to Scrambler being run incorrectly... Barely made it to my next event in time). People trying to fly their planes without winders, or torque meters, or lubricant... or the rubber snapping and teams looking around for spare rubber they didn't have.
Where'd that cooperation go? Why does everything have to be so competitive? It can be competitive AND friendly... But I don't think that will happen any time soon.

Honestly I think it depends on everyone's experiences. Nothing that anyone experiences is universal: heck, scioly is a NATIONAL thing, so there's bound to be teams of careless students, as well as teams of wonderful ones. I think that for the most part, scioly is pretty chock-full of funny, kind, science nerds: but of course, there's always bound to be a few bad apples :/

[foxinni]

I can't say I have had the same experience. Of course, I am competitive and want to win my event, probably more competitive than most. But other than the fairly common quiet kid in Scioly, almost everyone is extremely helpful and outgoing, part of the reason I love it so much. Don't get me wrong, you break the rules I am going to call you out on it, but I will most certainly lend you my goggles so you don't get disqualified.

Maybe it is just the fact I am in a fairly chill region and state, but Scioly has never been a place I have witnessed hostility or animosity. I have played my fair share of sports and have had disliked other teams for the smallest perceived slight, but have yet to have that happen in Scioly.

We are all here to grow and learn, and hopefully win a few medals along the way.

Yeah, I agree with the first part. However, coming from someone who hasn't been competing all that long: while there are plenty of nice kids and kind people, I have witnessed a few not-so nice events. For example, when during Codebusters, someone needed a pencil. (my teammates and i would have lent them a pencil, but as a trio, we only had 2... and they already had 2- so we didn't think that it would make much sense.) But I could clearly see there were at least 3 teams in which they all had pencil cases- heck, there was one team with 5 pencils all lined up next to each other- but they didn't even hand one over. It took one of the 3 sitting at that table to go "come on, let's give them one"- and his teammates went "should we really?" "do we have to?". But with the whole room silently watching, I think it got to them, and they (grudgingly) handed over a pencil. That was pretty disappointing to me, honestly. NOT saying everyone is like that! Just a moment I noticed :)

I've also heard the phrase "Fine, I'll go with your answer, but if it's wrong, I'm gonna blame you" (used in a serious tone, not jokingly) at least 10 times so far while I've been in study events...

Again, not saying everyone in scioly is mean and hateful! I've met my fair share of very friendly and helpful people who are more than willing to hand over an extra pair of goggles or share their pencil. :)

[pumptato-cat]

I can't say I have had the same experience. Of course, I am competitive and want to win my event, probably more competitive than most. But other than the fairly common quiet kid in Scioly, almost everyone is extremely helpful and outgoing, part of the reason I love it so much. Don't get me wrong, you break the rules I am going to call you out on it, but I will most certainly lend you my goggles so you don't get disqualified.

Maybe it is just the fact I am in a fairly chill region and state, but Scioly has never been a place I have witnessed hostility or animosity. I have played my fair share of sports and have had disliked other teams for the smallest perceived slight, but have yet to have that happen in Scioly.

Yeah, I'm just stating what I see in my region. Except the ESs don't even check for goggles...
I don't see outright animosity or hostility but I would not call anyone in my region outgoing.

I've also heard the phrase "Fine, I'll go with your answer, but if it's wrong, I'm gonna blame you" (used in a serious tone, not jokingly) at least 10 times so far while I've been in study events...

Yeah, for sure. Again, I'm not stating that SciOly kids are hostile. I'm referring to this behavior commonly seen in competitions, such as what foxinni showed. It's not hostility, it's an unwillingness to help others or cooperate and show kindness.

[foxinni]

Yeah, for sure. Again, I'm not stating that SciOly kids are hostile. I'm referring to this behavior commonly seen in competitions, such as what foxinni showed. It's not hostility, it's an unwillingness to help others or cooperate and show kindness.

Couldn't have said it better myself. No one is actively mean- there's no eVIL pLoTTIng or hATred- but there's an unfortunate amount of the aforementioned situations.

[Umaroth]

I can't say I have had the same experience. Of course, I am competitive and want to win my event, probably more competitive than most. But other than the fairly common quiet kid in Scioly, almost everyone is extremely helpful and outgoing, part of the reason I love it so much. Don't get me wrong, you break the rules I am going to call you out on it, but I will most certainly lend you my goggles so you don't get disqualified.

Maybe it is just the fact I am in a fairly chill region and state, but Scioly has never been a place I have witnessed hostility or animosity. I have played my fair share of sports and have had disliked other teams for the smallest perceived slight, but have yet to have that happen in Scioly.

We are all here to grow and learn, and hopefully win a few medals along the way.

Yeah, I agree with the first part. However, coming from someone who hasn't been competing all that long: while there are plenty of nice kids and kind people, I have witnessed a few not-so nice events. For example, when during Codebusters, someone needed a pencil. (my teammates and i would have lent them a pencil, but as a trio, we only had 2... and they already had 2- so we didn't think that it would make much sense.) But I could clearly see there were at least 3 teams in which they all had pencil cases- heck, there was one team with 5 pencils all lined up next to each other- but they didn't even hand one over. It took one of the 3 sitting at that table to go "come on, let's give them one"- and his teammates went "should we really?" "do we have to?". But with the whole room silently watching, I think it got to them, and they (grudgingly) handed over a pencil. That was pretty disappointing to me, honestly. NOT saying everyone is like that! Just a moment I noticed

I've also heard the phrase "Fine, I'll go with your answer, but if it's wrong, I'm gonna blame you" (used in a serious tone, not jokingly) at least 10 times so far while I've been in study events...

Again, not saying everyone in scioly is mean and hateful! I've met my fair share of very friendly and helpful people who are more than willing to hand over an extra pair of goggles or share their pencil.

Lack of pencils in Code
I always brought a full pencil case to Code of like 20+ pencils both for myself and whoever needs them and as an ES I still encourage teams to help each other out with that.