- Runtime handler and Windows npipe protocol are not supported yet in crictl v1.11.x. Those features will be supported in crictl [v1.12.0](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cri-tools/releases/tag/v1.12.0), together with Kubernetes v1.12.1.

## Major Themes

### SIG API Machinery

- New implementation of watch cache using btree data structure. Implementation is not enabled yet. ([#126754](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/126754), [@serathius](https://github.com/serathius)) [SIG API Machinery, Auth, Cloud Provider and Etcd]

- Fixed a bug that init containers with `Always` restartPolicy may not terminate gracefully if the pod hasn't initialized yet. ([#126331](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/126331), [@gjkim42](https://github.com/gjkim42)) [SIG Node and Testing]

- Reverts graceful node shutdown to match 1.21 behavior of setting pods that have not yet successfully completed to "Failed" phase if the GracefulNodeShutdown feature is enabled in kubelet. The GracefulNodeShutdown feature is beta and must be explicitly configured via kubelet config to be enabled in 1.21+. This changes 1.22 and 1.23 behavior...