DISLIKES:
Match list needs to be online as soon as it gets put in teams hands on paper.
The heat and humidity in the pit on Wednesday night was almost unbearable. Also, for teams with their 5 members arriving at different times, giving all 5 wristbands to the first person was not smart. Many would argue limiting it to only 5 people was not smart either. For many teams, 5 people is not enough to carry necessary items in and get started working safely. Do we want 5 people working at a 2x pace endangering themselves, or 10 people working at a more normal pace?
Escalators that didn't work were really troublesome.
Having an entrance to the pits directly at the bottom of an active down escalator was a big mistake. Teams who piled up down there at 7:15 AM to get into that (then closed) door should be ashamed of themselves. I'm surprised nobody broke an ankle in a pileup. Not a safe situation.
The sound quality was absolutely terrible for a lot of the time (at least on Archimedes). Several times, the announcer would exclaim something that made me say "Owww!" with regard to my ears. The volume was FAR too loud. With the number of UL safety guys/gals we have at these events, I would enjoy seeing them put more emphasis on safe sound levels. Not sure if it was sub-par amps, or too much volume in too small of speakers or what, but it was downright painful to listen to at many times. I had to leave the stands. On several occasions when I left the dome, everything around me sounded muted and muffled, for up to hours even. This is a clear indicator that sound in the dome had reached a dangerous level. The problem is the sound guys checking it have been blasting their ears with loud music for 20 years. They don't know what loud is anymore. I might as well mention the finale stage sound was too loud as well.
The food at Food World in Building C was overpriced and not good. Not sure why they ever did away with the pasta place (which was pretty good a couple years ago). With the exception of the rolls, the food at the Finale was not good either. Why was there no real Coca-Cola Classic? We were in Atlanta. The Coke Zero stuff is not even remotely similar. Also, the refilling staff were dumping heavy cans on top of people's arms who were just trying to get a cold one (which none of them were).
I think all the big-stage music/acts/whatever at the Finale could have been much better.
Teams yelling "ROBOT!" at the top of their lungs while strolling through the pit area was really getting out of hand. When you do that, you are not being safe, you are being downright obnoxious, and in some respects unsafe. If I am in the FLL pits and you are yelling "ROBOT!" in the Curie pits and I can hear you as if you were behind me, we have a problem.
DOGMA penalties that accumulated for a ball that missed a counter was just plain stupid. There should only be one penalty assigned for improper return, not a penalty for the whole time the FMS computer thinks it is gone. There is a referee watching the alliance station who can see there is clearly no ball that has been kept in the station. 20+ points in DOGMA penalties is not the way any match should ever end. The field should have be designed in a fashion such that ball return is so stupidly simple it can't get screwed up by the human player.
LIKES:
The venue event staff (yellow jacket people) was amazingly friendly this year. I'm not sure what FIRST told those folks but it worked. I was glad to see them asking about matches and congratulating teams on their way to and from the field. The elevator attendants were a nice touch too.
The explanation of the FIRST Logo was good.
The fireworks were quite good. I'll call that money well spent.
The new schedule and 10 matches was good.
The new seats in the dome seemed better than 2008.
The Einstein video screen was beautiful.
The food at the CNN Center was great.
The generosity of my good friends at team 368, over all 4 days of the event.
And, I'm sure there's more that I can't remember right now.