Caveat: before any edits, this is all based on reading only OP, not any follow-up posts. At the risk of redundancy, let me plow ahead:
- After the one-dimensional challenge of Aerial Assist and the snoozer that was Recycle Rush, the bar was pretty low - and the GDC capitalized on that both literally and figuratively. (B'dup bup psssh)
- This was absolutely the best engineering challenge in my 4-1/2 years, and appears to be on the short list going all the way back to 1992. The low bar and the climb work against each other. High goal vs low goal is a real design question. Teams can earn exactly as many non-competitive ranking points as they can in competitive ranking points, giving the challenge both a "solid floor" as well as an "open ceiling".
- Most of the good games are based on a current olympic, professional, or varsity sport. Stronghold was NOT. This makes it even more impressive that someone who walked in off the street could "get it" in fifty words: "You score a breach point by crossing four of those five defenses going towards the tower twice each, and a Tower capture point for putting eight boulders in the tower goals and getting three robots on the platform. Two more points for doing these things BETTER than the other alliance."
- To find negative issues, I have to intentionally look for them. Most of them were handled in team updates; the remainder basically come down to inconsistent foul calls across events.
I definitely give the GDC an "A" this year.