Its been a climb for so long (the past 6 games) that I still referred to this year’s end game challenge as a climb. “Lets be back at 30 seconds for the triple climb” is a phrase I used way too often this year. Its refreshing to have an endgame that isn’t a climb, although I think this year’s was incredibly simple and has already been done before (2012 balance). I hope FIRST decides to change endgame somehow to make it more interesting.
The only time I’ve ever judged was the virtual year. Given the way teams were approaching game design, I’d imagine your feeling is one that’s shared by a significant portion of the community.
I’m curious what’s to come from that game design challenge and if we’ll see any of the random bits and pieces from non-winning games get incorporated into future games.