<< Now, discounting the "no genuine clues"
part (which is subjective anyway), what constitutes,
or should constitute, an academic tossup? Is it a
crime to include a trash reference in the giveaway? I
mean, if something has become known through popular
culture to a greater degree than it has been known
through common history, and you've had your chance to get
it on all academic knowledge, why NOT throw the
teams a bone? >>
My 2 cents,
I
played in WIT IX at Berkeley, half of which was run on
UM-Rolla packets. I would agree that the quality of the
questions was at times below what I would have wanted from
an academic tournament, and certainly below the
quality of the packets submitted by the teams that wrote
packets for WIT. They were a little too trashy to my
liking; I'm of the opinion that trash has no place in an
academic tournament. If you've gotten to the point where
you've used up all the hard and medium clues, surely if
the answer is such that a trash clue will give it
away it is possible to find an academic giveaway that
is equally easy.
--Jerry