For the 2004 IRI, we added a new twist - a Mentors Only Round.
Adults only as drivers and Hps, with an adult or student as the ‘coach’. The matches were in Round 5, and they counted in the team scoring and ranking.
The gym seemed to ‘come back to life’ during these matches.
What did you think? Should this become an IRI tradition? Did it take away from the students? Did it give the adults a new perspective on the game?
Post away !!!
LOVED IT! I would certainly like to see it become a permanent fixture.
I thought it was great to see some of the team mentors try to drive their robots. As a former driver and coach, myself, it was especially amusing to see those mentors who are also field coach for their regular drive teams attempt to drive. To those mentors: It’s a lot harder than you thought it was, isn’t it? 
Anyways, I thought it was a great idea, and I think it should be an annual tradition at the IRI. It makes for good entertainment.
I thought it was a great addition. It let the mentors experience the noise & pressure the students feel when they are at the controls. I vote to keep it as an IRI tradition.
I had so much fun! Although most people at IRI heard this story, do you know how many times I was on drive crew when I was in HS?
Once. At Battlecry, shortly after I graduated.
Being able to operate (and successfully hang!) 269 was amazing. And it was really sweet that 716 thought of me for their crew, too 
With what you said about the “crowd coming back to life” was absolutely true. The matches were exciting in a different way: not only were the robots themselves interesting, but you knew that basically everyone out on the field was new, nervous, and for 2 minutes, allowed to be a kid.
In short, If I hear that IRI won’t have the mentor match, I’ll be hard pressed to fly out there 
“You drive like an old woman!!!” - Ken Leung to Mike Martus
IRI is an awesome competition.
That said, by the end of the LOOOOONG day Friday, most people are dragging a little bit, and everyone is getting a little tired.
These mentor matches had the entire event excited.
The field border was PACKED with people who came to watch such great driver/operator combos as Dan Green with Raul Olivera and Paul Copioli with Mike Copioli. (okay, so maybe “great” isn’t the best word choice ;)).
I think this excitement was great. Along with the talent show, it was one more reason IRI was exciting from beggining to end. I still haven’t recovered!
Kudos to the IRI planning committee for doing this.
It was definitely a positive thing.
Thanks,
John
Oh Stu…that was just because you got to operate the arm!
Anyway…as a mentor coach, I must say that the Mentor match was a great thing, even though Stu did break our arm in practice earlier that day (hm…). I throughly enjoyed it, and would love to see this become an IRI tradition, although I don’t think you should expand this tradition into too many other deviations from the norm of a FIRST tournament, not because it wouldn’t be fun, but because it may take away from the prestige surrounding IRI.
I thought that the mentor matches were great on a few different levels.
First off i thought that it added a much needed boost as stated earlier in the energy level. Everyone involved got a second wind it seemed when these rounds started, everyone was buzzing with anticipation and everyone wanted to see how these ‘professionals’ could do it as compared to a bunch of kids…
On top of that i think it gave some much needed insight into the job of driver/operator to alot of engineers. Most people dont realize exactly what a driver/operator goes through, the screaming coach, the pressure, trying to do 10 things at once and being told another 10 on top of that, dealing with obscured perspective, etc. I think that this really gave them a chance to feel what its like to drive a robot in competition. Maybe it’ll help some coaches understand what its like and make them a better coach.
I think it also reminded us all of what IRI is meant to be, FUN! We all came together and gave up our weekend cuz we knew it was going to be fun, and that what these rounds were, fun!
I think the mentor rounds were great and hope to see them (and hopefully announce them) next year!
I was disappointed about one thing… I wanted to see Jim Zondag stomp on his hat after his match
I loved the Mentor Matches… I wish I would have gotten to see more of them. Ken Leung’s comment about Mike Martus was priceless!
However, I have but one request - PLEASE have IRI on the weekend of July 16th or later next year! I didn’t get to participate because of the over 21 rule… and I’ve never been on the field during a match. 
I’ll second that, because if it’s during the July 7-10th weekend, I most likely won’t be able to make it. 
I think Amanda just wants to join all the mentors at the Omni Bar 
(hehe… just kidding, Amanda)
Same for me. I’ll be in Hawaii that weekend (and week before or after) to meet all my other side of the family (my mom’s side) and have a family reunion with all my native Hawaiian family members. I will be very very said if I wouldnt be able to make all of both of these events.
A hui hou kakou… :]
I think IRI should keep the mentor rounds. It was a lot of fun and the mentors get to talk some smack after it! I agree with moving the IRI to a different weekend because we had a lot of mentors with vacation plans. All in all IRI is the best and I love going:)
Yeah IRI Def needs to keep the mentor rounds, it gives us field people an opportunity to get out and see the robot from a different angle. IT was funny too becuase the field crews werent tired of cheering so during thoes matches it got loud!
She just doesn’t want all the birthday attention.
I thought it was great because it was fun to watch our mentors operate the machine. They were definatly fun to watch. Now some of mentors know what its like being an opperator.
My first post. Yay! 
[quote=David Kelly]Same for me. I’ll be in Hawaii that weekend (and week before or after) to meet all my other side of the family (my mom’s side) and have a family reunion with all my native Hawaiian family members. I will be very very said if I wouldnt be able to make all of both of these events.
Oh. sorry David. We already have the venue booked. That was the only weekend available. Guess you’ll have to miss it next year.
(everyone else - I’m just kidding David, we don’t have a date yet = but don’t tell him!)[/quote]
I am one of the mentors that drove, and afterwards, I gave our driver a very long “bow” as I “wasn’t worthy” of driving. I had a lot of fun, and am amazed that the kids do it everytime and in our case do really well! I second or third or what ever number we are on now to keep the mentor round. It was probably the most fun I as a mentor had at IRI. That could have also been the case because I was asleep in the RV for most of our matches after driving 26 hours to get to Indy
Mentor rounds were awesome. I was the driver for the “big laundry basket” and have a MUCH greater respect for what our drivers go through on the field. It’s easy driving the robot around in the Tech Center at school - it’s a whole different animal when other teams are beating up on you!
IRI should definitely keep the mentor match! What a blast!!
Sean