I think its a good change seeing I’ve always disliked having the submission date so close to stop build day because it means less members from the team are available to help with the submission because they are working hard to finish the robot or in the midst of other deadlines.
Yes its less time, but there is still plenty of time between now and February 4th.
The video doesn’t get submitted with the essay so you now have more time to work on it since your efforts after February 4th won’t be on the written portions. You can also get to work earlier on your presentation which is arguably the most important part of a Chairmans submission.
For most teams this change means actually starting the essay before build season starts. Every year I’ve been on a team we’ve said, “We are going to have the essay written before build season starts” but the result is still the same with the efforts beginning with the build season.