Since now everyone at College Park is up in arms, let me defend what I said, because I still believe it: I did not think fielding a strong house team was right. I still don't. If the players on your team absolutely NEED to hear as many questions as is possible, then have them playtest. I will grant that Maryland had an overload of staff, and that people needed to do something that dayand hadn't heard the questions yet. I guess my bigger complaint is not that Maryland entered house teams -- a tradition at the Terrapin -- but that they officially won the thing. House teams are around because there was a spot that needed to be filled -- not because they are bent on winning. For reasons I'll explain in a later post, house teams have an inherent advantage over everyone else. For that reason, they should not be an official team. If it's all freshmen, fine -- they do not have the Inherent Advantage I will discuss. But experienced house players do. I said that it took two teams to beat Chicago. I hold to that statement. Why? For the same reason an experienced house team does better than it should: the Inherent Advantage. This time, it was the Second Manifestation. For purposes of space, I will discuss both Inherent Advantages separately and away from this post. In closing, though, let me say this: I DO know members (past and present) of the Maryland team. Andy
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