IRI is known for great competition and good times. Usually we have a show in the Lawrence North HS theater after the meal on Friday night. This summer, the theater is being renovated, so we have turned our attention back to the playing field for some Friday night fun!
Mentors are gonna drive. 2018 IRI will have a mini tournament when mentors drive, at the end of Friday.
The point of this is to not only have some fun, but also raise some money for our designated charity to support Ella Whistler,
Here are da rules:
Entry fee is $50 to IRI’s 2018 charity.
Teams need to tell me or Chris Fultz via email if they want to enter, OR by in person by 1pm on Friday of IRI.
During regular qualification matches on Friday of IRI, teams will bid on being #1 seed. I will auction off the spots for alliance captains (1-8 or 1-6 or 1-4, depending on how many entries we get).
Alliances will be 3 teams (or maybe 2, depending on # of entries)
Alliances will play Power Up! FRC game, 3 vs. 3 (or 2 vs. 2, depending on entries)
The elimination tournament will be 1 win and advance (not best 2 out of 3)
Winners will get a simple trophy.
Students must be the field coach.
Students will be able to assist in key volunteer roles.
Any mentor-aged team member from this past year can be the driver, operator, or HP on their drive team
Recently-graduated students who were student members on their team in 2018 are not eligible to be driver, operator, or HP.
Added rule: If more than 24 teams enter, then the top 24 bidders will earn spots to play. (thanks, EricH)
Added rule: Practice robots are eligible, as long as they would pass an earnest inspection and not be 5 pounds overweight. (thanks, Spencer)
An incredible idea for an incredible cause! I’ll be there as a spectator, ready to watch. One question though, what happens if more than 24 “teams” sign up?
My guess would be a roundup of pocket change: Highest 24 bidders get in, and top 8 bids are the 1-8 captains. It’s for the IRI charity, so why not make “amount raised” be a qualifier? (It’s not like IRI hasn’t done crazier things before…)
Good question. I don’t see a problem with this yet. This is approved until someone points out a significant problem which I don’t see.
Yes. Also, each team will be encouraged to have multiple students sitting in the front row of the bleachers, each holding up white boards and yelling out different, confusing numbers which may bewilder the mentor alliance captain. If any accepting mentor says “graciously accept” after their team is selected, they might get a pie in the face.
Me too!
Good idea. This sounds good to me. I hope that we have to implement this.
Mentor Matches are great! I remember when MARC used to do them. I specifically remember back in 2011 when my team (1023) had our mentors drive. We went from scoring the top 6 tubes in every match to being extremely excited that we scored just one. They’re a blast and I’m glad to see IRI doing them and raising money for charity to boot!
IIRC, there were mentor matches at 2006 IRI. I drove very badly. Ever since that single experience, I have told my teams that having mentors learn to drive the robot is a complete waste of time.
It will be fun to watch a new generation of IRI mentors discover the joys of robot driving.
I have an impeccable mentor match drive team record at IRI, Ra Cha Cha Ruckus, and WVROX. Karthik was even my copilot once, at IRI in 2005, with Amanda Morrison as human player, with a robot so bad we eventually gave it away, and we still won the match.
Karthik will tell you his understanding of the controls was backwards relative to reality, despite the rigorous pre-match orientation we gave him (I have pictures). I mostly believe him.
But don’t let my words tell the story. I’ve got video! Bonus video of Karthik on 1114’s and 1305’s mentor drive teams. Check out that defense by 1305 swoon.
So. Many. Cameos.
Also, sorry Mrs. Copioli. I really didn’t see that miracle supercell in 2009.
2005 Amanda probably wishes her tetras scored/tetras loaded ratio was much higher. 2005 Travis wishes he could have spent a bit less time at the loading station.
As I recall, back in those days, the mentor matches lasted for one round of competition that counted towards the competition. (My dad and one of the other 330 mentors walked through the frame in about the first 30 seconds of video.)
Now, I think Amanda wasn’t dwelling on that particular match… She had some plotting and scheming to do for the next day (not that it helped much).
this team was the 24th to sign up.
** - these teams signed up after we got 24 teams. Not sure how we’re going to handle this.
Alliance selection will begin at 7:30pm Friday night. We almost have enough teams for 8 alliances, so we will plan for at least 1 more team signing up. Each round will be 3v3, with one win needed to advance to the next round.
If mentors want to pay their entry fee by check, please make it out to Perry Meridian High School.
Well, I’ll be the first to throw something in. Best auto wins it all!
On top of that, as extra incentive, winning mentors are invited to sign the robot that I’m taking Saturday night to China with me. It’s currently disassembled in the back of my car. We could use the good luck.
