[EricH]

Having inspected before...

What's this about finishing inspections on Thursday? Teams actually do that?

Of the L.A. teams in the first three matches, about half a dozen had to finish inspection on Friday morning. For most of them, it was a simple matter that had held them up (say, no BOM). After they finished, another 3-4 teams still needed the BOM or some other matter cleared up--and this is after Thursday's 12 hours of work/inspection.

Starting competition matches on Thursday is going to hurt, especially because teams will say, "We've got Thursday to finish" again. It'll take an event or so for them to realize, "$%^, we DON'T have Thursday, we need to finish on Ship Day!" And for many teams, their year will be over already by the time they realize this. Their experience is going to stink for a bit. It'll take a year or two to get everyone going to the point where this will actually work the way it's intended to.