[IKE]

I am going to pile on with not necessaryily new stuff, but stuff I really like:

Game quality was awesome this year. I loved Triple Play, and was really hoping for a gme similar to that. Initially I was dissappointed, and worried shooting frisbees would be more difficult than it turned out. Kudos to the GDC for making sucha great game.

I think they got the points perfect for each section. Balance was quite good. I would have changed the climbing rules a bit to make climbing easier, but I would not have changed the points. Nice job.

I liked that both the regular scoring and the bonus had a tiered scoring structure with the lower tier being very easily achieveable. This not only gave some clean and simple objectives so that teams could score, but allowed for teams to add depth to the cost benefit analysis that they do for various game efforts. There are a lot of important lessons taht come from this.

Thank you VEXPro and AndyMark for your continued support and availability of high quality affordable products. Yes, not every product was perfect, but I dare you to find a product line that is. Both of your teams made products that makes FRC so much better. Just watch any old match video and you can tell the difference.

Talons, I can't say enough good things about this product. Compact, capable, and a great value. I may not know why a chicken crosses the road, but I can tell you the bees are very happy the crossed over to Talons.

Thank you GDC for the additional high motor options. There are now so many good COTS power transmission products available, teams can focus their efforts on designing manipulators and scoring devices.

I like the frame perimeter rule. This allowed teams to think outside the box (pun intended) and added a lot of variety this year. 112 was a tough dimension to work within, but I like the challenges of a smaller footprint, and I think it helped with congestion on the field. Between this and the 54", I don't think it actually saved any inspection time (as others have said), but it has allowed for more diversity. Here in Michigan, we pay very close attention to the time required to inspect, and in general, the 112" was measured at the weigh in station which meant pretty much the same time as using the sizing box. It did allow for faster set-up of the inspection station which is a big plus.

I really appreciate the "Frank" discussion (2nd pun also intended) we have been receiving from FIRST HQ this year. I have been really impressed with the improvement in communication. Even when decisions were made taht were unpopular due to timing, I think the honesty and humility conveyed in the communications made it much easier to deal with.

Grand Blanc district event. I have sung the praises of this event in previous posts this year, but the attention to detail was amazing, and made the event so smooth. This was a role model event from a role model team.

As I think of more, I will chime in again.