[Li Jianliang]

*Agrees*
The only looping animation reel that I saw last year was at the Atlanta Championship.
There is somewhat of an unfair advantage to the veterns, who already know what appeals to the judges (strong concept in leadership/cooperation/fun in FIRST/change/future). I watched a good chunk of animations from 2004, and while there are some great eye candies, most were less-than-remarkable- they lacked in something or the another or all three areas.
I think some sort of a demo animation (step-by-step, maybe?) AND an overall guide to good concept-making should be provided with the 3ds max CD; that'd help out a lot of the newcomers (including 3ds max crashers, like me!).

The theme should be different every year... OMG, I just can't count how many Mars or "future" animations I've seen! Sure, Mars is very cool, and so's the concept of getting to it, but most animations just jumps from one event on Earth straight to Mars- a bit too far for me. One of these years, Autodesk should declare a "Mars-less Year", or something like that for other overused settings (Matrix, perhaps?).

EDIT: Eeeee! Roushey-sama! *Glomps*