Alright, this post is pretty much one of my favourite things on CD every year so lets get it started.
I think this game is exactly what FIRST needs. I have not seen a game whose initial concept I have enjoyed this much since Aim High (which has been to date my favourite game design hands down).
This game shakes a few fundamental assumptions of veteran teams. I can not tell you how tired I am of cut and paste drive bases with a new claw every year. I don’t consider this a failing of the teams, I mean “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” however, every time I see it I hold a slight bit of disappointment that the game design committee did not prevent this from happening. I understand how difficult a task it is to do that, but the difficulty of a task often bears no correlation to the importance of successfully completing it. 
Oh well the important part is that strategy won’t work anymore. Teams are welcome to dust off their old drive bases but it won’t do them a ton of good.
I’m thrilled to see a new controller system. That’s not to say I disliked the old one, but to say that a fundamental part of engineering is the fact that the technology you are using is always being changed out under you. Letting teams use the same parts over and over again provides a huge leg up to older teams who already know how to use them and provides a pretty unrealistic working environment. The amount of time an electrical engineer spends staring down board specs and docs is phenomenal. Learning to use a new piece of technology fast is a very important skill, and one sometimes FIRST doesn’t really emphasize for a large number of really valid reasons. However, we have the opportunity to do it now. Don’t gripe about it, it is really realistic. You’ll know it is actually realistic when none of the parts work and the vendor is unresponsive in addressing your issues. Hopefully FIRST does not introduce us into that level of realism.
Bumpers? Well I did not like them last year but there is no question in my mind that they are absolutely appropriate this year for this variety of game.
This game is, hands down, one of the best designs I have ever seen for a well-funded rookie team to succeed in.
My only reservation with this game is the impact for low-budget teams and the wear of the field over the regional process. Driving practice this year is going to be HUGE. Teams are going to need a way to simulate this driving environment as quickly and cheaply as possible. To do it realistically they will need a good chunk of a field. To do it safely they’ll need some serious guard rails. Anybody got a cost estimate of what that will be?
My second issue is that the field will probably take some damage. I have no idea how, I just have never been disappointed attempting to overestimate the ability of people to break important things. As the regionals wear on even small scuffs in the field may be game changing as they will provide random traction. That said, its plastic no? Do we have a liquid form of this stuff we can fill up scratches with or any other method to repair it?
Does anybody here have serious experience with the material the field is made of? I would really like to hear your insights.