Lindsay wrote: >>Though detailed planning obviously went into some aspects of the tournament, others seemed somewhat lacking. In the first game of doubles, I was told that I couldn't protest a tossup which I answered "cinematography" (the answer was "mise-en-scene", which three seconds later in the question was described as "a part of cinematography"). Though I have no strong basis for the assumption, I got the feeling that this was because a protest mechanism for singles and doubles matches hadn't been determined (or if there was one, the moderator hadn't been informed). There also seemed to be a great deal of variation in moderator leniency--one moderator told us that "vowels didn't matter" as long as consonants were in the right order, which is specious advice if I've ever heard it--and there were also some purely factual issues that could have been cleared up by closer editing.<< As the moderator in question, I feel I should respond. On the mise-en-scene/cinematography thing, I think it's a case of either you prompt or you don't. Since some of the questions specified prompts, and since I have some experience with this issue (see CBI nationals, 1991), I decided not to allow your protest at the time. What I should have made clear is that you were certainly entitled to bring the issue to the protest committee if you felt strongly. It wasn't a case of not having a process, it was a case of an effort to payoff ratio that seemed too low to pursue. That was my opinion, however, and I apologize that I didn't make clear that you had the option of pursuing it if you felt differently. On the vowels thing, that was general advice we received before the tournament to be fairly lenient with pronunciations, especially with foreign words. The word in question (Ceuta, the Spanish city near Gibraltar) is one that I'm not entirely sure how to pronounce myself. Since the answer given started with a soft C, had a t near the end, ended with an a, and had some kind of u in the middle, it earned 10 points. Had the vowel sounds been clearly wrong (an O sound at the end, for example) it would not have been accepted in spite of the fact that the consonants were correct. Just wanted to clear that up. I agree with your other comments about the editing and the grueling schedule. I was impressed with your ability to play trash at a functional level late into Saturday evening after all of that. Brian
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