Re: CBI Region 9 Results (LONG)

amber_sports <*no_reply_at_yahoogroups.com*> · Tue, 25 Feb 2003 01:53:20 -0000

Disclaimer: I'm an athlete.

"The NFL is played for the purpose of making money
through the sale of tickets, broadcasting rights, and
merchandise. The customers are the fans...Quizbowl is played for the purpose 
of entertaining the
participants. The players are the customers." 

Yes, the post to which you responded used the NFL to illustrate its point, but 
the NFL is hardly indicative of athletics in general.  In youth leagues, not to 
mention in 95% of all college (even Division 1) sports, the customers are the 
players as well.  Nobody watched the WAC soccer tournament on television, 
and the "paid" attendance consisted of a bunch of parents and a few students, 
whose admission was picked up by our administration.  But on an even 
broader level, thousands of college students play intramural sports every 
weekend.  In most of these instances (or maybe that's just at schools as small 
as Rice), there are few enough teams to play a full round robin without 
creating undue physical stress on the participants.

"The following conditions enter into my definition of a
fair format: the same performance creates the same
finish for two different teams..."

I find this expectation unrealistic.  The very nature of question-and-answer 
games implies some inequality in terms of the relationship between 
performance and success.  To use another certainly unwanted sports 
analogy, that's the way the ball bounces.  But probability tells us that this all 
evens out in the long run

"This is still fair, because it is mathematically impossible for a team to win the 
tournament without having both the best overall record and a winning record 
against the second-place team."

In order to be a champion, a team should be able to rise to the occasion and 
beat what is supposedly an inferior team.  This performance on an equal 
playing field, under pressure is what makes (or does not make) that team a 
champion.  If the questions are so skewed as to produce ridiculous results, 
the problem lies with the questions, not with the even-footing format.

"The College Bowl NCT/RCT format does not determine
its champion fairly, but does rank teams 3 and below
fairly (5 and below in the RR-->four team double-elim
format.) The reason for this is a desire to create
"showcase" matches artificially for the purpose of
maintaining the atmosphere of a televised event."

I will reiterate and describe in more detail what I proposed earlier, which is 
that a winner take all (or 2 of 3) final is more exciting for the participants.  The 
participants at NAQT ICT are not just the 8 players participating in the 
championship match (if it even occurs).  Rather, the wishes of all the players 
in the entire tournament should be considered; wouldn't players from lower-
finishing teams like to see a 2-of-3 or winner-take-all final between the top 2 
teams, instead of being deprived of this opportunity because said match 
occurred during round 2?  

To summarize, structuring a tournament so that it builds to a climax is not 
about catering to a television audience that does not exist, it's about creating 
a tournament that's more enjoyable for all involved.  The lower finishers get to 
see the game played at its highest level, while the top teams must endure the 
exhausting (but more importantly, ultimately rewarding) experience of 
qualifying for the final and then triumphing in the final once they get there.

--Amber Obermeyer, Rice '06