Whatup folks, A lot of people aren't going to buy this at all, but here goes: I think packet difficulty is NOT going up, at least in the 4 years I've been playing. Some of this might have to do with the replacement of some of the "difficult" southern submission tournaments (ie Tech MLK and Heinrich Boll) with "lite" tournaments like some of the UTC fall fare. Both were/are ACF style, but the UTC tournaments tend to be easier. It's not a criticism at all - Charlie does a great job editing and draws huge fields, much like the Tech tournaments used to - but it is different. I think that the jump between fall tournaments and Regionals might seem bigger than before, so I welcome the appearance of the ACF Fall tournament to complement the NAQT Fall offering. I'd like to suggest that the NAQT fall tournament made slightly tougher, to the Sectionals level, to help acclimate new players to the college game in a similar way. Different, related topic below. Some perceived question difficulty is depth-related (ie, identify a whole bonus about Marianne Moore) but some is inevitably tied to diversity. Borges is undeniably more difficult than O Henry, but in order to bring non-dead or non-white or non-male people or events into packets without writing on the latest revolutions in SomeTinyCountry, some "difficulty" is needed! "Difficulty" and "diversity" tend to be more closely linked for novice players than experienced ones, who've already heard their bonuses about Igbo authors, and I think attempts to minimize difficulty might come at the expense of how well QB represents historical and cultural reality. /\/\att Schneller, Vandy '01
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