The two things I like about this year's are: point swing and autonomous options
The point swing with the rows is great. One cap on the center goal could mean a 43 point swing. This makes huge last second comebacks possible and that is the most exciting thing in any game.
This year there are an incredible number of things to do in autonomous mode. With starting tetras, hanging tetras and vision tetras, the possibilities are numerous. Unfortunately, the low percentage of bots with good autonomous routines disappoints me. Pretty much everyone with a programmer should able to knock down a hanging tetra, right?
Overall, I like last year's game better because it had more robot diversity, as I explain in
this post.