Something which has been overlooked in this whole conversation is the packet submission issue. One HUGE benefit of junior bird tournaments is that teams don't have to write questions. Thus, I usually find that "bought" questions which many people seem to insult are of a higher quality and accuracy than packets submitted by teams. While I agree that packet submission or writing questions in general is beneficial, as President and one of the older members of my squad, I find that I often end up writing/editing most of my packets. I think it's unfair to also ask novices to jump right into writing questions, especially at a higher level of difficulty than junior bird. So if there are only a couple of juniors on a team (like mine), they're basically de facto disenfranchised from attending a lot of touranments because the feasibility of writing and editing a packet almost entirely on their own doesn't really make it worth it. So yeah, call me lazy or whatever...but I will continue to insist that for me and my teammates, the most fun we've had at tournaments is playing on "bought" NAQT questions, and answering lots of tossups and getting high bonus conversions. Again, perhaps I'm not a purist and don't embrace super-hard ACF obscure questions, but I'd rather see a 380-320 game with lots of powers than a 90-70 game any day. And even if the argument could be made that Mid-Atlantic teams still have a good amount of non-junior bird tournaments to go to if they're willing to write a packet of hard questions...I'm still waiting for someone to make the argument AGAINST opening up more junior bird tournaments by making them CUT-style. I still don't see any, and really do think that it's a great way to keep all undergrads involved and make it as level a playing field as possible given that circumstance. So I will keep praising Brandeis' decision to make their junior bird CUT-style. And I will keep asking Mid-Atlantic or other Northeast TD's who traditionally run junior birds to consider doing the same thing. But I think this is a great back and forth discussion to continue. Again, if people could present good reasons not to open up more junior birds, I'd love to hear them. However, I just see the benefits so outweighing the negatives, that I think the answer is quite clear. --Nick Walters --- In quizbowl_at_yahoogroups.com, "Michael Angelo Sorice" <msorice_at_u...> wrote: > --- In quizbowl_at_yahoogroups.com, "nicolas_walters" <Sywolf_at_a...> wrote: > > ... I hope other people will chime in with their thoughts on my post. I > > really think having more CUT-style tournaments or undergrad only > > tournaments is really going to help quiz bowl in the long run. While > > grad student participation is inevitable and perhaps beneficial, I > > still think and insist that this should be an activity primarily for > > college students and run by college students... > While I (and many, many others) don't see what good that holding > college tournaments on high school questions that someone bought is > doing for the circuit, you can do as you like with the money your > school gives you, for better or for worse. However, I feel compelled > to remind you that graduate students are, in fact, college students. > While I don't know the position of your organization, I know that ours > (UIUC ABT) is meant to service the entire student populace > (conventionally defined) and that, therefore, we have no right to > exclude grad students from our meetings, etc. I really don't see > anything wrong with that precept. > I don't understand how someone from your region, of all places, would > be in a position to complain about grad domination or lack of > tournaments that you can attend. While justifiability has never been a > hallmark of the points in this seemingly eternal recurrence of > "debate," cursory analysis seems to reveal a lower bound of five > tournaments for which you are eligible in the Northeast/Mid- Atlantic, > and it seems to me that, among major regions, yours is the one with > the lowest rate of active grad participation. Not, of course, that > that matters much when, in a year, one's team goes to exactly one > academic circuit event for which grads are eligible. > > Anyway, > MaS
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