Re: Tournament: Brandeis' Mark "The Junior Bird" Fidrych Sep. 25th (CUT-style)

nicolas_walters <*Sywolf_at_nicolas_walters.yahoo.invalid*> · Wed, 25 Aug 2004 15:49:04 -0000

Eric,

I wasn't speaking for you, your team, or undergraduates in general. 
I'm sorry for the fact that you misunderstood me, or that I may have 
misrepresented myself. I was only speaking for myself, and my 
teammates alone. And let me clarify my earlier statement, in case it 
was unclear. My A team is definitely capable of writing a good 
packet. In fact, we wrote two or three last year that I'm quite proud 
of. However, beyond the A team, the interest/ability of our other 
members to write quality questions is not as high. It's often hard to 
get them to submit their questions on time, and when they do, I 
usually have to edit them a lot.

I'm sure we're going to have some incoming freshmen that are going to 
be very talented, but forcing them right into writing questions I 
still think is a lot to ask. Again, I believe that this is a debate 
which is not black and white, because everyone is entitled to their 
own opinions. My team and I just happen to differ with you and your 
teammates. I think something too that people need to remember is that 
at least at my school, a lot of people that do quiz bowl do A LOT of 
other activities in addition to having tons of schoolwork. I know 
that a lot of other schools are probably in the same boat, but I 
merely point this out to emphasize my earlier point. We have lots of 
dedicated members who show up to practices every week, and go to 
tournaments often. However, asking them to also write 1/4 or 1/2 of a 
packet in their free time is often too much of a burden for them 
relative to their other daily priorities. Again, maybe you'll tell me 
that they are not dedicated *enough* to quiz bowl, but I personally 
sympathize with the fact that our members have many other 
commitments. Finally, even if you tell me that you'd rather play 
harder packet submission questions than easy NAQT questions, I still 
don't understand the argument against opening up more tournaments. 
Whether it's CUT-style like Brandeis is doing, or having two 
divisions like Harvard did with their COTKU Mirror last year, I just 
think there are many ways to continually expand the circuit. If you 
want to tell me that junior birds should be a little tougher, fine. 
All I'm arguing is to have the greatest number of tournaments open to 
the greatest number of people. 

--Nick Walters

--- In quizbowl_at_yahoogroups.com, "ekwartler03" <ekwartler_at_h...> wrote:
> As one of the undergraduates that you claim to represent, Nick, I 
> personally resent the implication that we are too weak to write 
> packets and compete against powerful graduate students.  I am in a 
> somewhat similar situation to you in that as a sophomore I am one 
of 
> the oldest active members of my team.  My co-president (also a 
> sophomore) and I have to be the substantial writers and editors of 
> all packets that our team writes, and it's hard.  If you want to 
> talk about a relative dearth of tournaments we can certainly use 
the 
> southwest as an example.  Without ACF Fall there are three academic 
> tournaments being held in this region this fall.  The first two are 
> both planning on using high school NAQT questions, which to some 
> extent will be good for incoming freshmen, and the third is a 
mirror 
> of Chris Frankel's Kickboxer classic tournament being held at UT 
for 
> which my co-president and I had to write the region's packet.  We 
> could have used high school questions for our Kickboxer mirror 
> instead of going to the trouble of writing a packet, but instead we 
> chose to write the packet.  By doing so not only did we learn from 
> the question writing but also saved the substantial amount of money 
> NAQT questions would have cost us.  I'd also like to note that your 
> team (Penn A) converted more of the available points at SNEWT (a 
> packet sub tourney) than at Brandeis, which used high school 
> questions.  My team was unable to qualify for the NAQT ICT last 
> year, and would have been shamed at ACF nationals.  You can say 
that 
> my position is one of an amateur, and maybe it is, but I do know 
for 
> sure that your implication that as undergraduates the members of my 
> team are either incapable or unwilling to do the work necessary to 
> better themselves is unfair, and if I were one of your freshmen I 
> would want the chance to prove myself in the real thing.
> 
> -Eric Kwartler
> Co-President, UT-Austin qb
> UT Austin class of 2007