Re: Chat Room Comments

JDinan8271 · Mon, 08 Nov 1999 13:53:16 -0800

As someone who was in the chatroom with Ms.
Cantave, Mr. Goss, etc. Saturday nite when the incident
occurred, I feel I should put my own two cents into the
mix.

 When I entered the chatroom, my first message
after the usual "hello" was "So who won Terrapin?"

 Somebody said, "UMCP A." 

 I said "UMCP
A??"

 The two question mark remark wasn't meant to be
mean-spirited to the host team - this was just the first time
in my memory that a so-called "host team" won a
tournament at their own school.

 When the discussion
went the route of "Maryland Mafia," "fixing," etc., I
briefly mentioned an occassion where I played on a house
team at a tournament. 

 In 1993, I played on a
GW house team at what was then called the GW
Presidential Invitational (now the JCV). The team was made up
of me, Guy Jordan, Matt Kline and Jeff Boulier - at
that time, all frosh and sophomores. But also, we were
members of the CBI and ACF "A" teams (along with grad
student Jon Schmidt, who was moderating at the
tourney).

 A year later, Georgetown fielded one of their
stronger teams, featuring members of their CBI "A" team,
for Georgetown Cup II. 

 The above two are
examples of teams fielding strong squads for their own
tourneys. When I commented on the chat, I basically pointed
out that this has happened before, and you're talking
to someone who played a part of it, with no
regrets.

 As far as Terrapin, I wasn't there, so I can't
comment about the tournament, packets skewed toward a
certain player, etc.

 As far as MAQT, I played
against them for four years, I've volunteered at their
tournaments for three years, and they've competed at
tournaments I've run/promoted for a number of years. I have
tremendous respect for the UMCP players I've competed
against over the years. They're good players, the
tournaments they run are first-rate, and I enjoy talking to
them. For someone like me, whose infamous shyness and
social anxiety has been wrongly judged as "arrogant
rudeness" by some, that last above statement means a lot to
me.

 Five years ago, I ranted and cursed at a now
ex-UMCP player about an incident that occurred at the JCV
on the now-defunct a.c.c-b. I got a number of
letters - a few thanked me for speaking up, but the
letters I kept in my inbox for months after were critical
of what I did. 

 I read and re-read those
letters countless times, and realized that my anger got
to me - that it would have been better if I found a
better way to defuse myself instead of trying to
humiliate someone before hundreds. It's not worth
it.

 Another thing - quizbowl is not life, and life is
not quizbowl. There are more important things to
worry about in life than what happened at a tournament
- what's perceived as a fix, protests, etc. Five
years ago, I learned that. 

 Before that, I took
quizbowl a tad too seriously, and let myself go too far at
times, especially after a difficult loss. Since then, I
take quizbowl with a grain of salt and just have fun.
Admittedly, I let my emotions get to me from time to time
(but only when I'm running a TRASH tournament :) ),
but for the most part, I just go out and have
fun.

 So to make a long story short - think before you
speak, don't judge a situation if you weren't there, and
there's more to life than -5's and power tossups.

 Thanks for reading,

 James Dinan