I personally think that this was a bad idea. I think that making us write an essay on our team will be a major problem simply because our team will not stand out. Everything will look the same. Maybe some team will play with font colors or styles, but that's about it. And a team could easily dramatize anything or (if desperate) make things up.
Video presentations provide a unique "flavor" to your presentation. There are so many ways to do it, and really interesting video of things your team has done will make your presentation stand out.
Having to do an essay format could limit the creativity of the teams and could make the most exciting of events seem dull and ordinary. Besides, making a video is a lot more fun than writing an essay... I'm sure we all have had enough writing to do in English class

. I really hope FIRST changes it back.