This entire event was very underwhelming. It's not just because I was sat at a table with the most obnoxious 12 year old and his father in existence but the story was just a hack and slash grind with no real real mass group interaction at all. There was no giant screen or visuals. No tally of successes or failures by the various tables. I was in the 1-4 level tier. Perhaps the higher tier players had a better play experience.
I don't know what I expected but i was disappointed
If the AL Epics are supposed to the the inheritor of LFR's Battle Interactives, the plot is SUPPOSED to be combat-heavy ("hack-and-slash grind").
I never expected a big screen or anything else - a whiteboard and some markers worked just fine for me. I play on the cheap at my FLGS, too.
Usually BIs would have three all-table social interludes, which often consisted of an announcer RP'ing the Army Commander asking for a show of hands to decide among several options, and announcing the results so far.
I've had a few unpleasant experiences with BIs - once having to play with a DM prepared for too-high level, so every monster was a big bag of HP that we could barely hit and did crippling damage - but every experience was something that could be described in a Feedback form. Any problem I could describe (and I did), I never encountered twice. In the worst case, grit teeth and resign yourself to struggling through each fight and hoping the whole BI can carry you along.
I've no way to tell how the interpersonal dynamics at your table went - it's possible somebody else thought you were hard to get along with too - but "who will I play with" is just random unless you and a table's-worth of friends arrange to buy tickets together beforehand. (Note that doing so also makes Event Organizers' life easier.)
I enjoy having kids-plus-parents at the table, because the adults wind up working together behind the scenes to give the kids a chance to shine. This eventually becomes a merry-go-round, so each person has the chance to be the Hero of one fight. It doesn't always work as planned: I once slammed shut a portal to the Abyss - the goal of the encounter - with half the party (and all the kids) on the wrong side. 
It is possible that your preferences in D&D are not what an Epic offers. In which case, chalk one up to experience (sigh) and go on with your game.
Hopefully next time you check out something new / different, it will ring true for you.
Generally yeah, those 'Interactive' style events tend to be VERY Combat focused. Ive not been to a AL one myself, but in other Organised Play campaigns they are all very combat focused (cept for Arcanis). Still they are very popular even if they are a bit limited in scope. (as you will see. people are already asking for tickets for the Gencon one which is sold out).
Its not a bad thing unless you are the type of player who wants an even spread of rp/investigation to combat or more investigation than combat. (and there have been quite a few AL Expedtions scenarios of that ilk).
I considered it average and more akin to a typical combat heavy expedition.
There was a fair amount of thought put into the story (which I liked), however I'm not a fan of low level save the world events.
Havent seen it yet, but know from experience that working "interactive" mechanics are hard to create so would tend to be forgiving.
even my DM lamented that prior Epics used to be more...epic so it wasn't just me.
I had fun with it (and admittedly, it was a nice boatload of XP). I’ll definitely agree that it was combat heavy, but we had a good DM and were able to problem-solve/RP our way through some situations, rather than just having to hammer through using hack and slash.
Dark Rites at Fort Dalton, on the other hand, while quite enjoyable, just didn’t seem to fit the two hour slot – it seemed like it could’ve used an extra hour or two to play through. We finished it, but missed out on a bunch of exploration.
I haven't played this yet, but as someone who has worked on more than a handful of these, it can be really hard to marry the story to the action.
Ideally, the BI is a REALLY IMPORTANT EVENT you and the other players care about. I think this is what the old Living Greyhawk organized play BIs managed to achieve. They did it often even when the interactive itself was sub-par, because it had all been set up.
Example: You spent a year serving the druids, especially a young druid of Spring who shall bring hope to the wold. You know her personally and have a strong liking for her, in and out of character. But, in the last adventure you had to make a tough choice, and the druid was kidnapped as a result, right before becoming the Grand Druid. All the early plot hooks in previous adventures now make sense, as the enemy will use your druid's life essence to create multiples of the worst thing you saw in recent adventures. The result could destroy the local area! Now, you go to the BI to raid their fortress, get back the druid (alive if possible), and stop the plot threads that will destroy your lands.
That's a very different model from an Epic being a showcase event that tells you the theme for upcoming adventures. It's especially hard as an author, when you don't know how much will be revealed as "new" when players play the adventure. For example, by the time the first Epic came out, most of the secrets within it had already been shared through the DnD Web site, social media, Neverwinter, etc. All had been completely secret NDA material when I began writing. What was meant to be an introduction to the forces in Tyranny of Dragons lost a lot of its thunder. No one is to blame here. But, I think the Epic could be woven in more carefully to be a story-rich experience that directly relates to the Expeditions plots.
A good example might be the beginning of the printed Hoard of the Dragon Queen adventure. That attack on Greenest could be an awesome Epic battle (the writing is clearly inspired by BIs and similar works inspired by BIs) that leads directly to the plot. The first Epic could have been directly tied to a series where Thay, the splintered Cult of the Dragon, fey forces, and hobgoblins all really were core to the story. Instead, it was a standalone. I'm tremendously happy with the Epic, but as a fan I always want more connections between my play experiences.
It's really hard to do, though. Again, nothing I've written above is about 'someone doing it wrong', but rather trying to think through possible alternate approaches.
The Tyranny of Dragons storyline is full of set pieces (both in Hoard/Rise and Expeditions) that would make great settings for Battle Interactives. Elemental Evil, not as much.
Ainulindalion wrote:
I think it may have been your table. Sitting down at a short term event with strangers doesn't leave much time for getting to know each other.
I ran a table of the all-access program last year at gencon and we had a great time. By the middle of the second session on Friday, the table had synced and was working in close concert with each other.
The epic was only 3 hours long but it was packed with activity. There was a bit of roleplaying and big battles plus the infomation from the battle commanders. My table enjoyed it greatly.
4/6 of them are returning this year to do it all again. 1 player is bringing 2 of his friends to join us in mulmaster.