--- In quizbowl_at_yahoogroups.com, "Samer Ismail <stipenn_at_y...>" <stipenn_at_y...> wrote: > > Quoting said results: > > << > worst TD: > Samer Ismail (4) > > worst editor: > Samer Ismail (5) > > worst tournament: > Penn Bowl (3) As someone who attended Penn Bowl this year and has heard it be much maligned in the past, I figured I might throw my two cents into the mix. First off, I think that whoever voted to call Penn Bowl the worst tournament and Samer the worst T.D. either has not been to Penn Bowl in a while (or certainly not this year) or is spoiled by the superlative quality of tournaments in their immediate neighborhood. Although I didn't vote, in my opinion the best tournament I've ever been two was this year's Cardinal Classic, wonderfully run by Joon Pahk, but Penn Bowl was by no means at the bottom of the heap. Considering the complexity of scheduling and running a 64 team tournament, I would say that for the most part, Penn Bowl went off without a hitch. There were some unfortunately long delays between rounds, but that can't be helped when 20+ moderators are reading at once; there are bound to be varying speeds and it's hard to find 20 or 30 very experienced moderators. All in all, I would say that Samer did a very good job of figuring out the logistics and the scheduling of the tournament. As for question editing... well, this won't be the first or the last time I'll gripe about the quality of science questions, especially physics. In short, it was my opinion that many of the science questions at Penn Bowl were of poor quality, and many of the physics questions were either downright lame or hoses. A number of literature tossups were also curiously formulated so as to give away the question on the first clue. For example, my tossup on "The Tin Drum" was rewritten by the editors to begin with the word "Oskar." Hmmm... Beyond that, however I thought that the questions were pretty decent, well written and overall of above-average quality. I'll shut up now.
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