In the hopes that this does not make me a QB
pariah :-) I just wanted to say that I agree with quite
a lot of what Andy has had to say. Do I think MAQT
intentionally cheated in any way, shape, or form? No. Do I
think that they're bad people? No; in fact, I like all
of the current and former MAQT players I've
met.
But at the same time, I feel that it is not fair to
field a strong house team at your own tournament. As
for the argument that Dave Hamilton and Julie Singer
are no longer the A team -- I'm sorry, I think that's
a technicality, considering that 1) They've been
the A team in the past, and 2) Dave and Julie would
be on my short list of best players in all of QB,
not just MAQT.
In short, don't put your best
players on a house team. If for no other reason than,
well, my only comment in the chat room that night was
along the lines of that it must really suck for teams
like Illinois, who traveled all that way (and the
travel, food, lodging, registration, etc. probably added
up to a fairly high cost) and then lost to a house
team. At the very least, if you must put your best
players on a house team, they should not be eligible for
any prizes.
Kristin