I actually enjoyed the event more last year, the mini daily rivals was just yet another thing to check as I was playing. They're a chore/distraction/annoyance to any event. With this event some days I played around midnight and others throughout the day so I missed a few rivals, occasionally forgot they were even running. Sometimes I clicked on them when I noticed the green tick for the initial one and realised I had already used up my daily allowance of energy/boards and just ignored.
Took me till the last few days to realise I could go back to the mini game tab via the world challenge tab and unlock pieces link upto then I was clicking the X on the challenge page and entering the mini game page. Admittedly I wasn't paying full attention to the event though.
Mini game itself was fine although it did feel like each board was more heavily weighted around two elements each board this time rather than all three, it might have been the same last year and not as noticeable. Obviously rivals would have highlighted it quite a lot more.
Reward wise considering the length of the event I have quite a few buildings that'll just sit in inventory and the ones that I'll build will just be left in inventory till I do a relay (Mainly due to size). Nothing really significantly urgent to build or 'must have'.
Event Minigame - Good/OK
Rivals - The usual annoyance
Rewards - Nothing special
Even with missing a few rivals managed a full main building plus a few spare upgrades, I'll have the eternal market upgrade again when the event ends, around 60 frags short at the minute. Couple of allies even though I'm not doing anything with them and a Chamber. Event wasn't that hard at all.