Can you handle it? Was RE: [quizbowl] Re: CBI Region 9 Results (L ONG)

• From: allythin <no_reply_at_yahoogroups.com>
• Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 05:45:14 -0000
• Message-ID: <b3evta+c93d_at_...>

--- In quizbowl_at_yahoogroups.com, "Craig, Stephanie Erin" 
<secraig_at_k...> wrote:
> I think that you all are forgetting one key thing: this is supposed 
to be
> fun and exciting. 

Yeah it is supposed to be fun, but recognize that the fun and 
excitement is very expensive, especially as far as CBI goes.  Teams 
don't like throwing money at things that screw them, or things they 
perceive to be screwing them.  On the one hand, we are thankfully far 
removed from the days when some regionals were single elim., and I 
don't mean single-elim playoffs I mean the entire damn thing was 
single-elim.  The price is much more justified than it used to be.  
And while these problems with the format probably should have been 
addressed before the tournament, and by playing without protesting it 
the teams in question tacitly agreed to the result whatever it may 
be, there is something wrong with dismissing critiques of the current 
system with tortured analogies to sports that are completely 
different in nature.  We are not a sport, we have never been a sport, 
and we never will be a sport.  The point of Matt's line of argument 
and the implicit point of Stan's postings is this: sports are fan-
driven activities and when there is a consensus of the fans that 
something should change, the sport should suit its practices to their 
requests; quizbowl is a player-driven activity, and when the 
consensus of the players believe something is wrong and should 
change, the activity should listen to our requests (as CBI and other 
activities have done) and make changes accordingly.  Just as a sport 
can't survive without fans, this "fun" game won't survive without 
players.

Sean Phillips