[Tristan Lall]

The music selection was, by far, the best I've heard at a FIRST event. Very little unmelodious swill, and a stunningly diverse repertoire. And I didn't hear Cotton Eye Joe and the infernal Cha Cha Slide four or five times each, as I usually do. (This is coming from someone who's currently listening to an Edward Elgar march from 1901. Read into that what you will.)

Incidentally, I was surprised at the level of vigourous interaction practised by teams. I can't quite bring myself to believe that that's a bad thing--it is admittedly fun to play defence with a powerful robot. Nevertheless, I was surprised, as Shawn was, that the style of play was so different here, than at other events; as a matter of fact I'd just had a conversation with Karthik and Shawn where we mulled the purported fact that defence was rarely useful against a "finesse" alliance this year.

With the number of tall robots, the seriousness of the potential penalties, and the (useful) taboo against tipping things, even contact that would have been merely incidental in past years acquired a certain drama that may well have caused a little extra tension. In that light, some of the gameplay was rather excessive--but had this been the 2002 or 2003 game, the calibre of defensive play would have been outstanding.