Amanda, by twist, do you mean taking away all their money? If so, that's new. There are always at least two non elimination rounds, so that wasn't new.

Yes, if they did not use the FF, it would be there for antoher team to scoop up.

The good thing about having a FF every episode, as there has been in every season past, was that you didn't have to use it until you were far behind. You didn't have to be first to use it because no one else would use it unless they were in the back of the pack. The bad thing was, you never knew if another team had used it before you because every team got one in their clue packet. There has been several teams vieing for the FF in the same episode only to arrive at the challange to find they have been beaten to the punch.