As far as the apparent start city/airports go, two of the four (LAX and MIA) have been in that role before. Yes, MIA multiple times (TAR 3 and TAR 11). DFW and ATL have been final cities before. Only one city has been a start city and not a final city -- Boston. Chicago, Denver, Seattle have been both. At least it isn't all LAX; it's spread around, and from what I've seen online the flights were chosen so that all the teams would arrive in Mexico City at about the same time, and I assume some teams would be held so they'd be released from Customs at the same time if need be. (A very common practice when all the teams are scheduled to arrive on the same flight.)
TPTB have been using live or recorded video route markers with Phil since TAR 6 in Hungary. They have been using video clues more frequently in recent seasons. So that is established in TAR as well. The only new element is the multiple cities/aairports for the start line, and I have to admit it's a neat trick.
JMO, but I don't see the value in forming strong opinions about new teams in filming with little information or no information other than the superficial kind in the press releases for the open start seasons. I do not engage in it. I stopped predicting whether one or more teams would be final three after TAR 14 because the kinds of information I would need is generally no longer put out there. YMMV.
