No question there was a lot of work put into the match and number of stages increased, but it seem like it had affected several other aspects of the match.
To me the match didn't feel like it was up to the promise and the previous years reputation. So, it looked like this time Restigouche club put on a first class circus.
It was very ironic to hear from the match director at the banquet how they appreciate competitors from Ontario drive 16 hours to the match and then see how we are treated as second citizens, e.g. splitting 4 people who drive together all in 4 different squads. More over, intermediate results or score verification reports wasn't posted during match and when I asked MD if we could get our scores verified before we take off for out 16 hours drive, I was told that stats office is busy entering scores and he won't be interrupting them. Guess I was asking too much.
The food at the banquet was decent and the prize table looked good, but you had to wait for the prize draw for 3 hours, including listening to long and repetitive speeches. For Christ's sake, limit the time for each speaker... It is good to recognize sponsors and show them appreciation, but having NFA guy mumble at the stage for 30 minutes and going in circles how we should fight for our rights was way over the top, besides, he didn't say anything we didn't know and most people wasn't really listening. At least for some of us it was a major competition and a sport's event, so having to stay past 10pm to get up at 6am wasn't respectful to match participants.
The match organization wasn't great either, with squads waiting up and jumping ahead of each other, creating even more road blocks to other squads. People taking off earlier, leaving their squad mates to officiate and reset stages for smaller squads (that is not even counting DQs and injured people, including competitor who ended up at the hospital).
Stages were typical Summer Slam stages (house, labyrinth, plane/submarine, tanks, phone booth, we all seen them in several previous years), generally decent and with some options, but this year they have added a twist by introducing conditions which targets in the plain view you can or can't shoot from certain positions (that was the case for at least two long stages).
Finally, the Summer Slam really outgrown the idea of the CROs walking and shooting with their squads. That severely affected stage consistency between squads, especially given my previous point.