And the BeachBots are (mostly) back safely--three are driving back with a special box (
) and the rest flew back today.
It was definitely great to watch on the webcast. And the ties were, well, excruciating, as the next thing done was wait during the cooldown period...
I've got to hand it to Paul on the pointing issue. Whether or not it was intentional, he made sure that it would not happen, intentionally or otherwise, during the final match, by clearing all parties off the balcony in the area in question. I believe that the rules in question are not clear on the legality, however, I think Tristan is correct as to the reasoning of 2nd coach, outside player station; also, I would bring <T27> in and point out that a semaphore is a device for game strategy, and if it is placed outside the arena, then it communicates outside the alliance station, and it is not in the alliance station, both violations (and if it's a human semaphore, extra coach applies). I think that the explicit ban may make a return next year. At any rate, any rules violations or perceived violations were not present during the final match, which was quite clean and hard-fought, and more importantly, penalty-free.
From an observer's point of view, the webcast was good, and knowing what was going on with technical difficulties via the chat was equally good. And I'd like to thank every team there for putting on quite a show--triple hangs, proving to Car Nack that more than 30 points was possible (if DOGMA was removed), and being so evenly matched in the eliminations that it took not 1, but 4 extra matches on top of the expected 3 match elimination rounds to decide a winner.