Re: 2003 NAQT ICT to be held in Los Angeles

tak_seorangpun <*no_reply_at_yahoogroups.com*> · Sat, 12 Oct 2002 09:53:35 -0000

the_packets_ops writes:
>>>
perhaps if there were more success recruiting and establishing new
programs on the West Coast, there would actually be tournaments to go
to outside of Berkeley and Stanford.
<<<

So far in 2002, the energetic bunch at Simon Fraser University have
hosted intercollegiate and/or masters quiz bowl "tournaments to go to"
on four separate weekends (five if you include the SFU-run tournament
held at the University of British Columbia), and they will host two
more on separate weekends in November.   I'm pretty sure that is more
than Berkeley or Stanford.
http://www.sfu.ca/~hwho/quizbowl/

the_packets_ops continues:
>>> 
B) The return flight is made easier for west coast schools because
they at least gain 3 hours back due to time zone changes, as opposed
to all the east coast schools, who will lose an extra 3 hours of time
in addition to the large amount of travel time required. When the
teams are in L.A. they will pretty much have to conform to the
tournament's Pacific Time schedule, nullifying any hours saved from
the time zone change on the flight to L.A. People have other things to
do too, and 3 hours of time is not an insignificant amount. Some of
the flights I quoted in my initial search efforts actually arrived
early Monday morning, and for people who have class/work Monday that
is unacceptable, let alone considering the hassle it would be to find
affordable transportation home from the airport when arriving at such
late hours.
<<<

The ICT always ends early on Saturday evening.  You have all day
Sunday to get home.  If you fly out first thing in the morning from
one of the L.A.-area airports, you should be able to get to any
college town in the U.S. before midnight, with a semi-reasonable
airfare and semi-reasonable drive.  I would like to see a
counterexample.

But this brings up an important issue with the opposite end of the ICT
schedule, for teams travelling in the opposite direction.  I don't
recall seeing this addressed before when the ICT was held on the east
coast.  The problem is that the ICT always begins at 5:00 p.m. on
Friday.  How does a west coast team get to Boston University or UNC by
5:00 p.m. Eastern time on Friday?  Someone correct me if I'm wrong,
but I believe all of the west coast teams had to leave on *Thursday*
in order to get to those ICTs in time.  Not only did people have to
take Friday off, but they also had to spend much of Thursday
traveling, or else take the Thursday night red-eye and arrive
sleep-deprived.