In terms of the competition I'll say that yes it certainly seemed stronger this year. Nobody had an easy road and as the champ said he was on the ropes several times. Littlenog, Zot, Millie, and Arthur all had him beat it seemed to me at times. It was skill and luck that saved the day for him but the same can be said of a lot of matches.
I'll call one group in particular: St Louis really upped their games this year. Players from this group took 2nd and 3rd this year and they played extremely well.