Maryland Difficulty (was Put Up or Shut Up)

• From: ratatosk22 <no_reply_at_yahoogroups.com>
• Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 01:18:53 -0000
• Message-ID: <ap7hpt+9eds_at_...>

I wasn't going to reply until I got my butt in gear and finished 
editing the Terrapin, but as I just did finish, I must respond to 
this message directed at Maryland.

Michael Davies wrote:

"So, none of us have any interest in attending Maryland's "modified 
ACF" tournament next weekend...it'll be interesting to hear how the 
questions at that one are, because Maryland is to question difficulty 
as Enver Hoxha was to communism, and it's possible that that was a 
peak of difficulty from which we'll now be descending. Still, even 
though we're not attending this major tournament, we've got three 
tournaments in two months that we can bring our A team to and expect 
to have a good time...

If all the tournaments were like ACF regionals or Michigan's and 
Maryland's invitationals, there'd be a problem with frustration in 
quiz bowl. But there's a lot of other tournaments."

Michael, I am disappointed that you have this sentiment.  First, ACF 
Regionals may have been held at Maryland, but the MAQT may have 
written 1 or 2 packets for it -- the ACF editors of course are 
responsible for those questions.

Second, I have made a concerted effort to place the difficulty of 
this year's Terrapin between that of ACF Fall and ACF Regionals, and 
a bit closer to ACF Fall -- relatively accessible, in other words.  I 
only wish you could have expressed this concern privately to the MAQT 
months ago instead of stereotyping Maryland's tournaments a mere 
three days before this year's Terrapin. 

I guess we'll have to see where the difficulty falls this weekend, 
but I at least _think_ teams will be pleasantly surprised.  In any 
case, (Beaver Bonspiel IX editor) Mike Usher and I have put together 
what we believe is a very solid question set... now it's up for the 
teams attending both tourneys to confirm or deny that.

I know this is short notice, but if Pittsburgh would like to attend 
the Terrapin, we currently have 10 teams registered, so naturally we 
could fit in an eleventh team.  And if not Pitt, if some other team 
in the area would like to give us a try this weekend, please e-mail 
Dan Greenstein at dgreens at wam dot umd dot edu.  We'll gladly take 
an eleventh team in the eleventh hour :)

Adam Fine
Editor, Terrapin Invitational Tournament