Re: All-Star Awards

• From: stipenn
• Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 13:59:34 -0800
• Message-ID: <000T9DNA6.001AH98PD.12170551-quizbowl_at_...>

<<And on a related topic: if all-star
awards are given, should there be a standard number
handed out? And should this be restricted to four (or
five), indicative of one all-star team (and alternate),
or should there be more? Several teams past and
present have handed out eight (suggestive of one first
all-star, one alternate all-star team); does this diminish
the prestige of the award? Or should all-stars be
handed out on a sliding scale based on number of
participants in the tournament (four per every twenty-fout
players, for example)? What about events which divide
competing teams into separate brackets? Should all stars
(as I believe) be selected from each
bracket?>>

Just a couple of my thoughts on these issues:

*
I think any reasonably-sized tournament (9+ teams)
should recognize, at a minimum, four all-stars.

*
Larger tournaments can recognize as many all-stars as
they see fit, although I think that it should be a
maximum of ~10% of the field. Up until you reach that
point, I don't think you diminish the prestige of the
award (8th in a field of 150 is as impressive, IMO, if
not more so, than 4th in a field of 50).

* In
a field with brackets, I would guarantee that a
certain minimum number be handed out in each bracket, but
I don't think they must be handed out in equal
numbers (e.g., if you have eight all stars, you can
mandate that the top two players in each bracket will
receive awards, plus the next four overall). Of course,
if we're talking varsity v. JV play, etc., I think
it's better to consider the brackets completely
independent. :)

* Another consideration to add: should
there be distinctions made by experience level in a
single-field tournament? As an example: is there a reason why
a tournament shouldn't recognize, say, the top grad
student, the top undergrad student, and then the next two
(or three) players overall?
Or why an
undergrad-only tournament shouldn't recognize, say, the top two
juniors/seniors and the top two frosh/sophs?

--STI