FIRST satisfied a lot of requests that have been made year after year, such as:
1) Weight requirement without battery
2) Cheap and easy to build field/ field elements
3) easy to understand game
4) more autonomous tasks (vision tetras or hanging tetras)
5) 3 vs 3
6) better definitions of spare parts rules and such (the fix it window, only allowed to bring 25lbs of fabricated parts to competitions, etc)
7) amazing kit of parts (CMUcam2, that amazing breaker panel from IFI, 4 CIMs, wow)
8) more things to help rookies (provided codes, great drivetrain that has many set up options)
and most importantly....
9) no balls
Going along with Amanda's post, I think this kickoff structure is much better. It keeps people awake and paying attention. Besides, FIRST just gets to have more fun messing with our minds as they show us more aspects of the game, but still not enough to know what the game is. I found kickoff much more enjoyable to watch, especially the game show.
Great job this year FIRST! I already can't wait for next year!