Impressions from the First Year-Last one

cellist_1981 · Tue, 06 Nov 2001 21:25:05 -0800

I will try to end this without too much rambling
by saying that there are things that need to be
changed about quiz bowl, both on a personal level, and on
the circuit as a whole. I have to say that having
met, and had a chance to talk to, many of the people
who have been "attacked" as the "dinosaurs" of quiz
bowl, I have been on the whole very impressed with
their knowledge and attitude. I have met equally as
many people, however who seem to have the attitude
that anyone who doesn't agree with them and the way
they want to run things can fuck off. This is what is
going to hurt ACF, NAQT or any other faction of quiz
bowl. Not the questions and not people losing. All of
you who have "Holier than thou" attitudes are what is
going to kill quiz bowl. And if you all aren't willing
to change, or at least tone down your attitudes,
than you deserve to fall with it, because it will be
your fault. Not mine, not Stan's, but yours. 

I
would like to continue having fun with quizbowl and I
think I can, as can all of you. But you all need to
remember what it was like to just be starting, and at
least be mindful and maybe a little sympathetic to
teams like mine who are trying to get going. I'm not
saying make the questions easier just for us, and I'm
not saying that ACF or anyone else has to change
solely for us. Change because you wand more people
involved, change because you care about quiz bowl players
(good or bad), change because it is something that
needs to be done. I would like to play DIV II against
teams where there is actual competition. How much fun
can it really be for all of you who are very very
strong players to play against teams that just sit there
because you are faster? Doesn't sound like a whole lot of
fun to me. Let those of us who are still learning and
who are up and coming play each other and actually
have a competition. Make it fun for us to, so we want
to come back, and so that we want to work that much
harder. Encouragement is a much better way to learn than
brute force.