The Update, it fixes nothing! (AKA: why is everyone so excited about Update #16?)

[StevenB]

The update fixes several things. First of all, it should reduce the number of penalties. Combined with the additional 5 point bonus, the "always score for your opponents" strategy is no longer viable. That's a huge improvement.

Originally Posted by pfreivald

The GDC has made it *absolutely clear* that the object and the spirit of the game is to play to win -- each match.

I have to respectfully disagree. The GDC wants Breakaway to be a competitive game, but they have made it even more clear that there is more to winning than getting a higher score than your opponents.
If the GDC wanted us to play purely to win matches, they would have made the ranking system win-loss-tie. But they didn't, which means there's more to winning than "winning".