I too want to thank Alexis and the rest of the Georgetown staff for running an excellent tournament this past weekend. The tourney ran on time, the questions were by and large quite good (thanks to Matt Schneller of Vandy as well, and to Shawn Pickrell for writing an outstanding packet), and every reader we had did a bang-up job. And there were very good prizes too! I was happy to get an award for fifth scorer, and the second-place plaque was cool. The only thing missing was Alexis's basket of baked goodies -- maybe next time :) However, I got a more optimistic picture of "the scene" out of the weekend than Matt did. First, I have to hand it to Alvin Wong and Chad Groft of the winning Maryland team. Against us, I was dead even with Dave Hamilton at 5 toss-ups apiece. Alvin made the difference, with his two powers and two regular toss-ups. He knows a lot of deep, tough stuff. Next, I commend the vast improvement of Shaun Hayeslip and the very good play of Josh Allen and Mo Smith. They came very close to winning, and gave College Park three scary teams in the field. I must also give it up to the Georgetown house freshmen, who put up a very respectable showing; to Columbia, who is a Top 25 team between Bennie Letzler, Bill Atkinson, and UVa. transfer Matt Brady; and to Zeke, who, playing solo for Michigan, nailed my butt to the wall in Round 1. Finally, I was impressed with how the Hopkins sophomores played when I saw them against John Nam's Maryland team, and with my teammate Fong Hsu, who was nailing most of the science, and played possessed at times -- better than I had ever seen him play before. Some bonuses were tough, and difficulty varied some from packet to packet, but overall I liked the questions -- no real repeats to speak of. In short, the weekend made me feel good about quizbowl in general. Matt's right about individual scoring being dominated by the Six Horsemen -- six players in their sixth year or later averaging over 60 PPG, with no one else over 42 -- but just below that were some noble performances by undergrads, particularly UMCP A. See some of you at Penn State this weekend! -Adam Fine
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