[DonRotolo]

Lots of things went well this year.

1. The cRio beta, early ship and overall intro went REALLY well. OK, some issues with the DS and DSC but not bad at all.

2. The playing surface and wheels were a brilliant stroke. Many experienced teams had to actually design a drivetrain this year. As Doug G stated: 3-D and other devious playing surfaces, bring it on!

3. The match scoring, field control system* and reset process was very smooth, not much in the way of difficulties.

*OK, week one FCS issues notwithstanding. We had fewer replayed matches in 2 regionals & CMP than in the past several years.

4. Bills Blog. Good source of info, increasing transparency to FIRST.

5. Much improved breaker panel, DSC, the various breakouts, Jaguars, WAGOs, even the camera... overall better connector retention, easier to wire up, better performance.

6. Inspections seemed more consistent from venue to venue.

7. More webcasts than ever (I think). Thank You NASA.

8. Great idea to have the game pieces available through a large retailer, like WalMart. What actually happened couldn't have been predicted (I don't know if there was any communication to WalMart over the GDC's plans. Probably would not have changed things much)

(I'll think of more later)

Don