[tjf]

Though the idea that Anchor Beach would *ever* take their hands off the controller during a match is hilarious, it was overall a decent episode.

They touch on the importance of listening to mentors, though the interaction with the "299" mentor left a bad taste in my mouth. The fact they called out a specific organization is truly a shame, as they could have done without it and still gotten the point across... To have the "powerhouse mentors", those who often sink in just as much time as any other mentor as somehow "lower" than another mentor is appalling.

In my own opinion, the powerhouse teams aren't "mentor lead" as this episode tends to imply, but rather a group of students crazy enough to listen to their mentors and go above and beyond. It takes a small (and growing) army to run a FRC team. Skilled mentors are important for the 4 year turnover.

Overall, they covered part of the program as a whole, though obviously not to my (or a significant part of Chief's) satisfaction. Their treatment of GP and Coopertition like nothing more than buzzwords are... (though I can't lay claim to this) mildly offensive to those who actively practice it. However, the idea that FIRST made it into mainstream media at all is a miracle. Hopefully FIRST HQ can keep up their PR work and spread the word in ways we wouldn't otherwise see. It's sometimes easy to forget that as big as a community as we are, our voices don't travel far outside the echo chamber.