What went well at the JPL competition... not much lol. The balls were not the size that we practiced with so the device did not work as intended since it was heavily reliant on ball size being relatively correct. But on the flip side our project did work well given the misinformation we were given and we still managed to score some points, a whopping 20 out of 190.
During the JPL project, we could have been more organized and more precise. We also should, in future projects, keep to a minimalist approach to avoid unnecessary complications. For example the big ramp and striking system were more complex then needed and were less precise then needed, the small imperfections cause the entire project to work much less than intended and it caused problem shooting to be much more difficult.
I Would advise my future self to have a solid plan for the project ahead of time, and stick with the given plan, not straying to far from it. I would also say to strive for the least complex design possible.