While there are most certainly outliers, as there are at any tournament; thanks to the inclusion of an infinitely tall objective room on all of the tables, I don't personally recall many tables that had abusive or utterly one-sided terrain setups, certainly not the majority. What kind of guidelines would you suggest, though?
To RD's questions:
1a) We don't go to these shindigs to get loot. Some go for the competition, some for the camaraderie, some for their art, some for a multitude of reasons. Prize support can(and will) grow with the event.
2a) While amusing, some of the mechanics of the spec-op did lead to a 'snowball' effect. Get some good rolls early, and your mans becomes a 8-14pt ARM 7 ODD HMG, or some other filth. Lose him early, and you're back to square one against aforementioned min-maxers. Perhaps a limiting effect, like Rudra's, or less of a death penalty; if your guy dies, you get to roll for that round's split Objective Pointss for your next Spec Op.
1b) I think the scenarios were pretty good! The removal of some of the more punishing aspects of certain ITS scenarios was an appropriate adaptation for this style of event.
2b) Team giveaways were awesome, and I am rightfully chastised for not thinking of something like that. Although the number of people out there with access to custom Lasercut or CnC/3d print surprised me (not that it should, now that i think about it). More motivation for next year, who's got the best giveaway swag.
3b) Still mulling this part over.