NAQT:

gwfidel · Tue, 11 Apr 2000 20:37:33 -0700

Hey,

 I'm hearing a lot of complaining
about ICT, and while I do see that a few of the
problems exist, overall I had a lot of fun at a huge
tournament in a really cool part of a beautiful city. I
participated in D2 at ICTs, so this was my first experience at
one, but I really had only a couple of complaints
about the tournament. First, it would have been nice to
have all the rounds in one building for the whole
tournament; however, coming from a BU sized city university
on the east coast with a major space shortage, I
understand that stuff like that isn't easy. 
 Second, I
guess I wasn't too happy about the lack of a separate
D2 packet, but this doesn't necessarily mean that
the tounament sucked because of it. Other than the
first round and a lit and art heavy pack on the second
day, my team ended up doing respectably each round,
and there were a couple of buzzer races in each
round, so they weren't necessarily impossible (well,
sometimes, anyway). I think D2 is more about playing people
with a relatively similar level of experience as you
than getting some fly PPG, anyway, and at ICT we did
that. 
 On another note, a lot of people are
complaining about the abundance of Current events and trash
in the packets. As someone who lives for these
questions, I feel that the amount per packet is about right.
Also, current events is not the same material as trash,
despite what some qb players would like you to believe.
If qb existed back in 1066, these people would be
complaining about questions on that pointless Norman invasion
of England. After all, it only occurred a few months
ago. Just because a war started or a president was
elected in the past few months rather than centuries
doens't make it worthless trash that shouldn't be asked.
I will not, however, try to argue that Britney
Spears should be elevated to the same plane as Bach. I
think that speaks for reasons other than time, though.
I also don't remember a lot of sports trash. The
only two tossups from ICT that can pop into my mind
right now are Phil Esposito and the Ashes (which is
really a Hitchikers guide to the galaxy question,
anyway, because that's the only reason most qb players
would remember it. I'm also willing to guess that many
of those people who don't like sports trash cherish
Douglas Adams.)
 Anyway, I had a lot of fun, and would
like to thank NAQT and BU for a good tournament.