Several things I noticed
The game:
The game this year was very well designed, in my opinion. Very few teams were able to build a robot that could do everything, and yet it was easy for any team to compete, such as building a kitbot with pool noodles and a drive on hanger.
The rankings:
The rankings were much better this year than in my rookie year. It was difficult to explain the rankings with the coopertition bridge, so this year was much better for explaining the tournament to spectators.
My favorite game so far (small sample size, though

)